High-speed train to Tianjin may inspire Asean leaders

The ministers are in China from today until Friday for a special meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership. At the meeting, they will take stock of the relations over the past decade, look ahead to the future and discuss ways of handling problems over the South China Sea. Of course, the codes of conduct will be on the agenda.
Activities scheduled for them in Tianjin are merely visits to the Tianjin Planning Exhibition Hall, the ancient culture street and some meetings with local executives and officials.
Obviously the highlight of this trip is the high-speed train, as it showcases China’s advanced transportation technology and offers the ministers a chance to experience it for themselves. Many Asean countries have been considering a similar railway system to boost their logistics and connectivity.
The Beijing-Tianjin high-speed train is believed to be the world’s fastest conventional train service. It can hit a maximum speed of 330 kilometres per hour, taking just half an hour to cover the 117km between the two cities. Surely this should be enough to inspire the Southeast Asian leaders, whose trains can barely hit 60 to 80km per hour.
The railway system in many Southeast Asian countries, notably Thailand, is old and out-of-date as many were built more than 100 years ago and rarely developed since. In fact, some Asean nations don’t even have a train service.
Laos’s biggest dream for a long time has been to develop a proper railway system, yet the trains chugging between Nong Khai and Vientiane are more like the toy trains one would see at Disneyland.
Many nations in Southeast Asia have been planning to develop their own railway service as well as find ways to link it up with the rest of the region. Their ambition is the same – have faster trains that run through the region for the purpose of community building.
Several Asean members have one common dream – to have at least one high-speed train service so they can prove to the world that they are up-to-date in terms of technology. The biggest debate in Thailand at present is how much money is needed and how fast these trains will go.
Laos has recently announced that it is at the planning stage for a high-speed train, while Vietnam has said it is building a high-speed railway link between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Malaysia and Singapore have also recently announced a high-speed train link-up.
For China and Asean, a railway system is not just a means of transportation and logistics, but also has political connotations as it showcases a country’s progressiveness, modernity, development and capability of the state as well as international cooperation and community building.
Hence, taking the high-speed train to Tianjin and back should light a spark among the Asean ministers of future cooperation, which should result in an advanced transport system.