Malaysia’s Anthony Loke pitches pan-Asian rail as buffer for any South China Sea fallout

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke is championing a high-speed pan-Asian rail link as a crucial alternative trade route between China and Southeast Asia amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.

In an exclusive interview with This Week in Asia during his visit to Hong Kong last weekend, Loke outlined his vision for a rail network that could bolster regional supply chains if maritime routes were disrupted.

“If you can link up all the way from Malaysia to China, it means that this is an alternative mode of transportation for China and it’s a very important alternative link in terms of supply chains, especially when you have tensions in the South China Sea,” Loke said.

“Through the Straits of Malacca, we can use trains to transport goods all the way between China and the rest of the world through Malaysian ports,” he said. “If this can be done, this will definitely help in terms of transportation and security of the supply chain for China.”

Despite rail networks connecting Malaysia and China via Laos and Thailand already in place, they were limited in their capacity while train speeds were still very slow, Loke said. There should be more commitment between all the countries on the network to upgrade their existing railway infrastructure, he added.

“I believe that more integration means better development and better opportunities for everyone,” he said. “It’s not that if this would happen, it only benefits Malaysia and China. The countries that we pass through will benefit as well.”

  

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