(Clockwise) A metro/rapid transit running the Beijing Subway Line 13, a medium and low-speed EMS magnetic levitation (maglev) train and a low-floor light rail vehicle manufactured by CRRC Tangshan. (Photo : CRRC Tangshan)
As China taps the global rail market, the amount it places on its trains and the promptness of their delivery impress buyers, but experts remind the country of other factors it should highly consider, reported the South China Morning Post.
Chinese experts said that the country’s offer of cheap bullet trains combined with its capability to manufacture them quickly appeal greatly to buyers.
According to other experts, however, particularly from some of those who visited the factory of the state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Tangshan in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, in May, buyers nowadays look further beyond affordability and speed.
Biru Paksha Paul, Bangladesh Bank’s chief economist, said that buyers from developing countries now demand for world-class quality, too.
“China’s next agenda will be to improve the quality of exportable trains and buses to capture a major share of Asian and African markets,” said Paul to SCMP.
For Li Yanfei, an energy economist at the Jakarta-based Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, the country should conduct “more bottom-up research and communication with host countries.”
As China invests abroad, Li said that it should also engage in “long-term and careful planning,” adding that “its diplomatic policies should have a long-term perspective.”
Local train manufacturers might as well make pertinent adjustments in the overall construction of bullet trains specifically made for export.
As Chu Yin, an associate professor at the University of International Relations in Beijing, said, “That a high-speed railway suits China does not mean it is suitable for the world.”
Another major thing to consider together with market-oriented behavior is the role of politics in the world rail market, according to Huang Rihan, a researcher at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based Chinese global think tank.
Huang reminds China of facing possible power play in the international market, with politics having a finger in the pie.
One CRRC executive said to SCMP that loan terms and interest rates contribute to setbacks in the exportation of trains. The problems encountered are not always production-related.
The Finance Center for South-South Cooperation, a Hong Kong-based non-profit international organization, prepared the factory visit at CRRC for officials coming from different countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
CRRC, which became the biggest rail manufacturing company in the country when China North Railway and China South Railway merged, invested on a 10-billion-yuan 120-hectare industrial park in Tangshan City, reported Xinhua.
Founded in 1881, CRRC Tangshan, according to its website, aims to become “a green, intelligent and people-centered transportation solution provider.”
