Indonesia, China sign joint venture for high speed train project
Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesia and China on Friday signed a joint venture to build a high-speed railway line, marking progress in the South-East Asian country's attempts to upgrade its creaky infrastructure.
A consortium of four Indonesian state-owned companies and China Railway International Co Ltd will build line linking Jakarta and Bandung, the capital of West Java province, 150 kilometres away.
"This marks great cooperation between Indonesia and China and a landmark in the development of high-speed railway links," said Sahala Lumban Gaol, the chairman of the joint venture.
The train, the first such project in Indonesia, is expected to travel at 250 kilometres per hour when it is completed in early 2019,officials said.
The Indonesian government invited China and Japan to bid for the project, but scrapped an initial plan to fund it using the state budget.
President Joko Widodo later decided that any project would not involve a government loan guarantee. The project was given to China after it agreed to the terms.
Experts say Indonesia's poor infrastructure has been a major impediment to strong growth, but the state budget can only cover 30per cent of the estimated 450 billion dollars needed to build roads, railways, ports and power plants by 2020.
The Indonesian economy grew 4.7 per cent in the second quarter, the slowest pace in six years.
