CHINA and Southeast Asian countries will hold a high-profile seminar before the end of the year to lure private investments for a US$2 billion railway project linking Singapore to southern China to facilitate the flow of goods and people across the region, officials said yesterday.
The Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project aims to construct or upgrade 550 kilometers of "missing links" in a 7,000 kilometer circular rail system connecting China and seven of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The whole loop, including domestic railways that will be paid for by individual countries' governments, is estimated to cost at least US$10 billion dollars, ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong told reporters.
He said earlier that overall progress on the project has been hindered by a lack of funds and other technical issues in connecting the railroad to major towns across the region.
No completion date has been set, but officials were hoping to have some connection ready by the time the regional bloc fuses into an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, he said.
Ministers and officials of ASEAN and China welcomed the proposed high profile seminar to attract potential investors to the project in a joint statement after their ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation meeting in Manila yesterday. Ong said officials hope to hold the seminar before the end of the year.
"We need to find funding to cover that missing link" he said. "We are hopeful that the seminar for the SKRL will attract private-sector interest, particularly the banks and the fund management entities.