Rail connectivity among issues discussed during Thai PM visit, says Loke

The Star

Malaysia wants to improve rail connectivity in the region and that was among the issues discussed during the recent two-day official visit of Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.  Loke said better rail connectivity with Thailand will result in a better Pan-Asian railway network in the region.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/bdde2azj   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Just a quick one, so you had suggested establishing a sort of anti-Asian rail connectivity in here.

00:08Is that going to be discussed with Thailand? Is it the CRL linking up, going all the way up to China?

00:14Yeah, of course, even yesterday when the Thai PM was here, we raised up that issue.

00:20If you look at the joint statement, there is a reference to that, more connectivity on rail connectivity and road connectivity.

00:30So definitely, we want to establish a better relationship with Thailand as far as rail connectivity.

00:37And eventually, if we can have better connectivity with Thailand, then Thailand can link up to Laos, Laos can link up to China.

00:43So that will definitely help to realise the Pan-Asian Railway Network.

00:50In fact, right now, already realised. Pan-Asian Railway already realised right now.

00:56A lot of people do not realise. But it's just that because the railway network is already there.

01:02And in fact, we have one ASEAN Express right now, a cargo train between Malaysia to China.

01:08But it is not mainstream yet, or not in a big way yet, because we still have to overcome a lot of challenges.

01:18One of those is that in terms of custom clearance, this is something which we discussed with the Thai government yesterday.

01:24To hope that we can have more facilitation in terms of goods in transit, so that we can fasten the process.

01:31Helping in terms of transportation in a better, efficient manner.

01:35So all that will be part and parcel of our continuous effort.

01:40So that if we can help to clear customs faster.

01:46And in terms of better facilitation, I'm sure it will help to boost trade among regions in ASEAN.

01:55And connectivity is the key factor. Without transport connectivity, trade cannot flow.

02:00So that's why Ministry of Transport is fully supportive of all our efforts by Bank Trade.

02:07Because we are the one who will facilitate.

02:09Because more trade means that more business for transport as well.

02:12But you need the transport network in terms of facilitation and to ensure that trades can better flow.

02:18Most of our trade right now are conducted via maritime.

02:23Goods are shipped through sea.

02:26But we hope that increasingly we can transport our goods through rail as well.

02:32So that's why one of the key agenda of Malaysia is to drive the ASEAN connectivity.

02:37How many percent is currently under maritime?

02:40Maritime is over 95% of trade.

02:4395% of goods transported via sea.

02:48Because one big ship can carry thousands of containers.

02:52Of course that is the mainstream.

02:54But increasingly, as I said, we are looking at rail as one complementary service as well.

03:00Is there any target, like how many, the ratio?

03:04I think it's very hard to say right now.

03:07Because cross-border rail connectivity is still at a very infant stage.

03:14In Malaysia, we hope that we can increase more.

03:17As a ratio for Malaysia's transport policy, we hope that public transport can contribute 40%.

03:24So it means that we can take away cars from the road.

03:29That's why we are building a lot of rail infrastructure.

03:31ECRL, double track, all that.

03:34So that in the years to come, we hope that we can not only encourage the public to take train as a mode of transport,

03:41but also change the mode of transport for goods from road to rail.

03:46So that's why after ECRL is completed, we will have a lot of initiatives and policies

03:52to ensure that the optimisation and utilisation of ECRL will be maximised.

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