China Railway bullish on overseas business
Railway builder aims to triple foreign orders and revenue amid push from top leadership
China Railway Group aims to nearly triple its overseas orders and revenue within three years, driven by mainland leaders' "high-speed-rail" diplomacy.
One of the country's two dominant railway builders, the state-owned firm aims to boost its overseas orders to US$20 billion by 2016 from US$7 billion last year, and raise its overseas revenue to US$10 billion from US$3.72 billion.
"It is not hard to achieve this. Chinese leaders have been marketing Chinese railways abroad, wanting Chinese rail companies to go out," said China Railway's chairman Li Changjin.
Mainland leaders were actively involved in high-speed-rail diplomacy, and the central government had been pushing for cross-border railways to neighbouring Southeast Asian nations like Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, said Yu Tengqun, China Railway's board secretary and joint company secretary.
Last year, Premier Li Keqiang promoted Chinese railways to the Thai government during his visit to the country, Li Changjin said.
In March, Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional legislation to finance the government's rail and logistics plan, which included high-speed-rail links between northeast Thailand and southern China through Laos, Xinhua said.