This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on July 25 - 31, 2016.

The quick pace at which the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project has become concretised, with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Malaysia and Singapore last Tuesday, says a lot about the benefits that both countries see in their economic integration.

As a chorus of government officials, business groups and analysts have agreed, the high-speed link will certainly be a game changer on a variety of fronts, which had made a compelling case for its inclusion in the government’s Economic Transformation Programme.

As Datuk Ahmad Suhaili Idrus, director of the National Key Economic Area for Greater Kuala Lumpur/ Klang Valley had noted in a newspaper column, one could travel from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in less than two hours to work during the day and return to Kuala Lumpur in the evening to be with the family, and vice versa.

In fact, this is a daily scenario in major cities with successful linkages, including Beijing-Shanghai, New York-Chicago, Madrid-Barcelona, Tokyo-Nagoya and London-Paris, he said.

A comparable game-changing development in Malaysia, in terms of road infrastructure, was the construction of the North-South Expressway in 1982, which transformed travel along the industrialised west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

When the highway was still being built, the then Works Minister Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu had memorably promoted its benefits by saying that when the highway was ready, travellers could have breakfast in Johor Baru, lunch in Kuala Lumpur and dinner in Bukit Kayu Hitam, all in one day.

This was during a period when using the trunk road took about double the time it currently does to get from the south of the peninsula to the north, or vice versa.

Moreover, the journey was frequently punctuated by arduous periods when traffic built up behind heavy vehicles trundling along with their payloads. Impatient motorists would overtake the lumbering lorries, narrowly missing oncoming traffic, but sometimes, the consequences would be tragic.

Small towns that were near to the new highway enjoyed a boom as access to urban centres suddenly improved, bringing people and markets closer together, enabling employment and boosting demand for property.

On the other hand, the towns that dotted the old trunk road became pale shadows of their former selves as the new road drew away most of the travellers and their custom.

Similarly, the KL-Singapore bullet train promises to be a dream come true for globalised businesses as well as both governments. Multinational companies looking for an Asean base will be able to consider Kuala Lumpur as an alternative to Singapore, where they would incur higher rental and operating costs. With Singapore so conveniently accessible, these corporations could enjoy the best of both worlds by being located in Kuala Lumpur.

Of course, the synergies extend to multiple sectors, including tourism, education, real estate, employment and much more.

Malaysia is also banking on its cost-efficiency to pull more Singapore’s businesses onto our soil.

As Ahmad Suhaili noted, with Malaysia’s lower property prices and larger human resource base, Singapore’s SMEs would find it more attractive to set up office here to take advantage of our bigger domestic market.

Furthermore, both countries are looking at China’s strong commitment to build a high-speed rail network that would stretch for more than 3,000km from Yunnan province through IndoChina to Singapore to bring a vast consumer catchment within reach.

But perhaps the most significant of the impacts that may accompany the shrinking of distances between these regions is the people-to-people interaction that it will engender.

For one thing, the experience of being transported from one’s country with its own sociocultural environment into another, with a similar yet distinct ambience, in a mere 90 minutes, is likely to foster an openness among the peoples of the two countries.

A comparison of the values seen in our societies, different standards of civic behaviour and differences in cultural norms, to name some of the more identifiable qualities that may distinguish one country from another, would certainly lead to greater understanding of one another.

It is also more than likely that each will learn something from the other as we spend more time in common pursuits, as business partners, colleagues, clients, service providers, consumers and as neighbours and friends.

Also, as Malaysians and Singaporeans have more invested in each other’s countries, whether in terms of capital, employment, education or simply in leisure and recreation, the feeling that the fortunes of our peoples are inextricably intertwined will surely grow, and we will learn to look at one another not so much as rivals but as members of a larger family who can either prosper together or undermine our common base, depending on how we play our cards.

It is a truism that in any course of action, there will always be positive and negative outcomes. As our two nations that were once together take a historic step to cement our economic fortunes together, we have an opportunity to consciously commit ourselves to act in concert for the mutual well-being of our peoples.

The high-speed rail link will bring our peoples into physical proximity in what seems like the blink of an eye, but to make the best of our relationship, we should determine now to behold one another as neighbours and partners, first and last.

R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia

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