JULY 16 — Many news reports and conversations have been generated the past week, locally and abroad, following the recent announcement of the Request for Information exercise for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) project by MyHSR Corporation.

Taking into consideration the tremendous benefits that the HSR project would bring to the nation and its people if the project is well-planned and managed from the start, I applaud the vision and vigour of the Government of Malaysia to reactivate the HSR project, this time through private sector investments.

As the first Chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), which is now known as the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) between 2010 and 2017, I know that SPAD, and later on MyHSR Corporation, under the able leadership of Datuk Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal, had taken great strides and put in much effort to develop an integrated and comprehensive plan for the proposed development of the KL-SG HSR project.

In addition to identifying and developing technical and engineering specifications needed for the initial planned development of the HSR project that was about to take off back in 2018 following the Public Inspection exercise, the team also drafted the visionary HSR Socio Economic Development Plan that would help unlock potential growth opportunities and transform the socio-economic landscape of the cities and towns between Klang Valley and the Southern Corridor of Peninsular Malaysia.

As proven by a number of countries that have HSR as one of their core modes of transport, such as Japan and Taiwan, early, integrated and well-organised development of the HSR have brought about significant development and prosperity to these countries.

As reported in the media recently, the Japanese HSR, more popularly known as the Shinkansen, was part of the country’s National Income Doubling Plan and contributed to Japan being the second largest economy in the 1980s. The GDP of Japan doubled in seven years and then doubled again in the following five years.

In Taiwan, the focus of the Taiwan HSR Special District Plans to introduce distinct development themes for each of the five stations along the HSR alignment have demonstrated positive correlations between HSR development and economic growth, with substantial increase in the GDP, FDI, productivity and urbanisation indicators after the introduction of the HSR.

The annualised trends for a comparable period pre- and post-development of the Taiwan HSR had indicated that GDP per capita had increased by 38 per cent, FDI had increased by 43 per cent, while Productivity and Urbanisation had increased by 30 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

In Europe, the Paris-Brussels-Cologne HSR corridor supported a 4.1 per cent GDP growth in Brussels from 1999 to 2004.

China too, has also taken great strides in developing the HSR, with more than 40,000km of HSR in operations and another 30,000km under construction.

Despite only building its first HSR in the 2000s, China has the largest HSR network globally in under 20 years of development. The China HSR has increased the market potential of its second-tier cities by as much as 59 per cent, demonstrating that the HSR is more than just a mode of transport.

Such are the benefits that we could potentially derive from the HSR project, not forgetting that closer to home, our neighbours such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have also taken the initiatives to optimise and reap the potential benefits of HSR.

We will be left far behind if we do not start now.

To the few naysayers who raised their concerns about the lack of resources and technical expertise in the area of HSR in Malaysia today, I would like them to reflect on the time before the first national car project was introduced and where we are today, the number of jobs that the project had created directly and indirectly, and its contribution to the nation’s economy.

And to those who raised their concerns on ridership and ticket fares, I am confident that industry players in the private sector will do their math before submitting their proposals to the government.

Both the public and private sectors would also take lessons from the past and in the present, in addition to applying global best practices, to ensure that they could work together to successfully develop the KL-SG HSR project for the benefit of all.

Let’s give the KL-SG HSR project our full support.

To the naysayers who suggested that the HSR project be developed by a neighbouring country, do ponder if any sovereign nation would allow its neighbour to build a strategic infrastructure over its land.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.