Copyright 2003 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2003 Vietnam News Briefs
Vietnam News Briefs

October 14, 2003

LENGTH: 324 words

HEADLINE: INFRASTRUCTURE: ASEAN RAILWAYS TRY TO KEEP MEGA-PROJECT ON TRACK

BODY:

ASEAN railway managers planning the logistics of the Trans-Asia rail
service met in Hanoi yesterday to nut out measures to keep the ambitious
project on track.

In his opening address, Vietnam's Deputy Transport Minister, Pham The
Minh, acknowledged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' conference
was also a forum for rail managers to discuss ways to improve the region's
existing railway services, given the increasingly competitive transport
market. Minh said Vietnam was a staunch supporter of the 9,135km
Trans-Asia railway, which will stretch from Singapore to the Chinese city
of Kunming, passing through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos
and Myanmar, and pending $ 2.5 billion investment, is estimated it will
take three years to build.

He said Vietnam Railways was undertaking a profound organizational
reshuffle to make full use of the railway's economic and transport
potential.

The 25th ASEAN Railway General Managers' conference would see Vietnam and
other countries with existing rail infrastructure, examine ways to access
untapped markets as well as adopting new technology for the railway's
development, Minh added.

Conference participants will share experiences on enhancing business and
management capacity, and improving service quality to meet increasing
demands of rail users.

The three-day meeting will involve information exchanges on locomotive
engine performance, rolling stock, derailments and train accidents, and
modernizing rail network communication and signaling systems.

Vietnam Railways said participants would discuss technical issues, such as
rehabilitating traction motors.

The conference has been an annual event since 1979, with Vietnam being
host twice, first in 1998.

The eight ASEAN members with railways are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

(The People Oct 14 p8, Pioneer Oct 14 p1

Vietnam News List - vnnews-l
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/vnnews-list.html
List owner: Stephen R Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>