Japanese companies set sights on Singapore-KL high speed rail project

The country wants to export its bullet-train technology.

Japan, fresh from a $15 billion rail win in India over China, aims to sell its bullet trains to a high-speed line being planned between Singapore and the Malaysian capital, opening a new market for companies from Hitachi Ltd. to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The government supports such a bid, Japanese Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii told reporters in Tokyo Tuesday. Cooperation between the government and business leaders was crucial in clinching the deal with India last week, he said.

Japan, which built the world’s first high-speed train more than half a century ago, is stepping up efforts to export its bullet-train technology to meet a pledge by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to triple infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen ($248 billion) by 2020. Singapore and Malaysia have proposed a rail line connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur that will cut the travel time for the 300-kilometer (180-mile) journey to 90 minutes from at least four hours by road.

Read the report in full here.