Tadashi Maeda was visibly agitated. Addressing an investment forum in Kuala Lumpur, the senior managing director at Japan Bank for International Cooperation assured the packed hall that Japan would redouble its efforts to secure a contract to build the proposed 350km high-speed railway to link the Malaysian capital to Singapore, at an estimated cost of between $9.7bn and $14.5bn.
Mr Maeda had good reason to be agitated. He was speaking last October, a month after the Indonesian government surprised many by awarding a $5.5bn, 150km Jakarta to Bandung high-speed railway contract not to Japan — which had spent five years on feasibility studies and pushing Jakarta to get the project going — but to China. It shocked the Japanese establishment , which had been certain of success.
Mr Maeda should brace himself again. FT Confidential Research, a unit of the Financial Times, believes China is the early favourite to win the Malaysian contract, too.