Japan has reaffirmed its desire to take part in the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed train project, according to Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
This was conveyed to him by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at their meeting on the sidelines of the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan.
Notably, Abe had expressed Japan's interest to be involved in the project's international bidding process in November last year to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak during a bilateral meeting between the two leaders at the sidelines of the 25th Asean Summit in Myanmar.
Muhyiddin noted that the high-speed train project was decided by the governments of Singapore and Malaysia to be implemented by the private sector, with the offer made through an open tender.
"Generally, we are attracted by the Shinkansen system (Japan's high-speed train system). The system is efficient, uses sophisticated technology and, effective safety-wise because it has yet to record an accident or death" he said.
"All these will be taken into account in our assessment in selecting the party to be involved when the tender is opened.â€
In awarding the project, Muhyiddin said it was also important that Malaysia benefits from technology transfer.
"Besides this, the financing aspects must also be attractive so that the overall package is the best on offer. All these have to be taken into consideration.†He revealed that he had told Abe that the project is in the fine tuning stage by Malaysia's Land Public Transport Commission, Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and other related agencies.
The deputy prime minister noted that the Japanese "appear to be pushing quite aggressively. They are very keen knowing Malaysia and Singapore have arrived at a consensus to carry out the project. Maybe, they see this as an opportunity to help their company come to Malaysia.â€
And while the tender had not been opened, Muhyiddin is confident that it would attract various interests, including China.