Vietnam to adopt Japan's shinkansen high-speed rail system+

HANOI, Dec. 11 Kyodo -
Vietnam has expressed its intention to adopt Japan's shinkansen bullet train
system for its $56 billion (5 trillion yen) project to build a 1,700-kilometer
north-south high-speed railway, Vietnamese and Japanese sources revealed
Friday.

Vietnam's intent was conveyed when Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with his
Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama on the sidelines of the first summit of
Japan and five Mekong-region nations in Tokyo in early November, they said.
Vietnam's parliament is expected to officially endorse the project next May to
link Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with high-speed railway services, they said.
The Vietnamese move is good news for the Japanese business community, which had
been calling on the country to adopt Japan's bullet train system.
However, Vietnam may face difficulties in starting the project as the country
has yet to work out concrete plans to procure funds for it.
The financial stumbling block could be removed if Vietnam can secure official
yen loans or other types of loans from international lending institutions.
At the bilateral summit in November, Hatoyama asked the Vietnamese prime
minister whether Hanoi was interested in adopting Japanese shinkansen
technology for the planned high-speed railway system, they said.
In reply, Dung told Hatoyama that Vietnam would be willing to adopt the
Japanese technology for the good of the bilateral relationship, the sources
said.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment has since requested that the
Japan International Cooperation Agency implement a feasibility study on the
railway project, they said.
The ministry and JICA are assuming that a 280-km section between Hanoi and the
central Vietnamese city of Vinh and a 380-km section between Nha Trang and Ho
Chi Minh City will be laid before other parts of the 1,700-km system are
constructed.
Earlier in October, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak asked Vietnam to allow
South Korean companies to take part in the railway project when he visited
Vietnam.
==Kyodo