Fast track: Indonesia, Malaysia rail projects may give China more deals

A billboard advertising the East Coast Rail Link, in Kota Sultan Ahmad Shah, Kuantan, Malaysia, on Aug 28, 2018.PHOTO: ST FILE.

WALLINI (Reuters): In a rural part of Indonesia's Java island, two orange-clad workers confer in Mandarin over plans to lay tracks on a stretch of a US$6bil (RM24bil) high-speed rail project between the capital Jakarta and the textile hub of Bandung.

Both are employees of the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC), and have previously worked on a rail project in Uganda, another part of Beijing's sweeping multi-billion dollar "Belt and Road" initiative (BRI) to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond.