This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 7, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd and the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) will jointly conduct an industry briefing next month in preparation for the assets company (AssetsCo) tender for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.

“The industry briefing is expected to attract the participation of regional and global entities, which are interested to participate in the project’s AssetsCo tender, to be called by the end of this year,” said MyHSR in a joint statement yesterday.

The AssetsCo will be responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining all rolling stock, as well as designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining all rail assets such as track-work, power, signalling and telecommunications. It will also coordinate the system’s network capacity for operations and maintenance needs.

The industry briefing will be open to all qualified entities and will serve as a platform for MyHSR and LTA to share key features of the HSR project, as well as indicative AssetsCo tender parameters and technical specifications.

It will also provide an opportunity for a dialogue among MyHSR, LTA and the industry.

“Since the bilateral agreement was signed last December, we have received indications of strong market interest in this project. We hope to receive strong interest for this industry briefing too,” said MyHSR chief executive officer (CEO) Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal and LTA CEO Ngien Hoon Ping in the statement.

Targeted to be fully operational in 2026, the HSR will cut travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes, compared to more than four hours by car.