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
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
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.