ASIA is embracing bullet trains like never before.

    Singapore and Malaysia signed an agreement Tuesday that will bring a high speed rail link to Kuala Lumpur by 2026. The long envisioned plan, six years behind an earlier target completion date, follows a US$5.5 billion project already under way in Indonesia. India last year chose Japan to build a US$15 billion network, its first.

    Asian nations are modernizing their transport infrastructure while China has set up the world’s biggest high speed rail network. Japan has been running bullet trains for more than five decades now. As countries embrace the latest technology, it’s also pitting Chinese and Japanese manufacturers of super-fast trains against rivals such as Siemens AG and Bombardier Inc.

    The memorandum of understanding on the rail line was signed in the presence of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his counterpart Najib Razak in the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya. The agreement will pave the way for final negotiations on the development and execution of the 300-kilometer line connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. A tender for the project will be issued next year, Najib said Tuesday.

    Last year, Singapore and Malaysia said they would reassess the 2020 target for the completion of the project because of the scale and complexity of the venture. Leaders of the two countries had announced in 2013 the rail link may be completed by the end of this decade, with Najib calling it a “huge game changer” that will transform the way the neighbors do business.

    The high-speed rail line will trim the land journey between the two Southeast Asian cities to 90 minutes, from about five hours now. It will also challenge budget carriers such as AirAsia Bhd. and Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s Tiger Airways, which fly passengers from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in about an hour. Trains will run at a top speed of more than 300 kilometers an hour, the two governments said Tuesday.

    Asia’s appetite for high speed rail has also pitted Chinese rail giants, such as CRRC Corp., and Japanese manufacturers Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. against European rivals.

    Japan, which built the world’s first high speed train more than half a century ago, is stepping up efforts to export its bullet train technology to meet a pledge by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to triple infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen (US$284 billion) by 2020.

    China, home to the world’s biggest high speed rail network, has identified the sector as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint for economic development.

    (SD-Agencies)