CHINA and Japan are locked in an increasingly heated contest to build Indonesia’s first high-speed railway, with the Asian giants sweetening deals and turning up the charm as time runs out to woo Jakarta.

    The rivalry over this major project is just the latest to flare up as China challenges Japan’s long-standing dominance in Southeast Asia as a key source of infrastructure funding.

    Japan, a top-three investor in Indonesia with huge stakes in the automotive and mining sectors, seemed destined to build the high-speed railway until China muscled in with a counter offer earlier this year.

    President Joko Widodo stoked the competitive spirit of the two Asian powerhouses as he toured China and Japan in April trying to drum up much-needed investment for a overhaul of Indonesia’s aging infrastructure.

    In both Beijing and Tokyo, he boarded bullet trains and declared his vision for high-speed rail in Indonesia: a line connecting the sprawling capital Jakarta with Bandung, a mountain-fringed city famed for its universities and IT expertise about 160 kilometers away.

    The line, if completed, will not only slash travel time between Jakarta and Bandung but pave the way for an expanded network linking the capital with Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya in East Java.

    The schmoozing has been ratcheting up ahead of Aug. 31, when Widodo is expected to announce the successful bidder.

    China is not seeking any funding guarantees from the Indonesian Government and has promised construction would begin this year, with the network up and running no later than 2019.

    Japan’s proposal is slightly more expensive than its rival, and it is only promising trains will hit the tracks in 2021.

    (SD-Agencies)