SINGAPORE, Sept 29 — A second industry briefing held in London this week for firms interested in bidding for a key tender for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) drew more than 200 participants from over 110 international organisations.

Although lower than the first industry briefing held in Singapore in July — which drew nearly 400 participants from 165 organisations — support from industry players remains “strong”, Malaysia’s MyHSR Corporation and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority said in a joint statement on Thursday (Sep 28).

Both sides will call a tender by the end of the year for the Assets Company (AssetsCo), a privately financed entity responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining the trains and rail assets of the 350km HSR.

The rail service will cut travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes, from about four hours by car currently.

More than 60 per cent of the organisations at the second briefing on Tuesday were European. The rest were from North America, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Asia.

They included financial institutions, project management consultancies and systems providers and integrators.

Since July, both sides have developed additional content and firmed up requirements leading to an effective AssetsCo tender, according to MyHSR Corp chief executive Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal.

“Additionally, we have successfully completed the submission of the Section 4 Land Acquisition Act and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment studies,” he said.

LTA chief executive Ngien Hoon Ping said the response to the second briefing lends confidence that the tender will draw “high-quality and competitive bids”.

Both governments are committed to making the project a success, he added. Participants were told the tender evaluation will be weighted more heavily on the quality of proposals.

Bids will be assessed on their own merits with no requirement for local partners. Each country’s regulator will enforce the rules within its jurisdiction, but in coordination with its counterpart.

Both countries have jointly developed a safety directive and will develop a set of “harmonised security outcomes” that will be implemented through the relevant national regulatory and security bodies, according to the statement.

Participants included representatives from HSBC and the Plenary Group, an infrastructure developer and investor.

HSBC’s co-head of infrastructure and real estate in the Asia-Pacific, Mr James Cameron, said the update on status of the project was useful, and discussions with the procurement team and other international representatives were valuable.

Among the Singapore firms at the first briefing were six that intend to team up and partner with international players to jointly participate in the HSR project.

These were Clifford Capital, DBS Bank, Sembcorp Design and Construction, SMRT International, Surbana Jurong and Singapore Technologies Electronics. ― TODAY