State owned CRRC Dalian Co. Ltd. of China, one of the largest train manufacturers in the world, signed a memorandum of understanding with a Filipino company as a part of a plan to bid for rail projects and establish a rolling stock manufacturing plant in the country.
CRRC Dalian signed the MOU with Filipino company Comm Builders & Technology Philippines, a former maintenance contractor of Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and Light Rail Transit Line 1.
CRRC Dalian deputy general manager Zhou Chuanyi, Ocean Eagle Holding HK Ltd. managing director Lam Ngai who serves as CCRC’s Hong Kong-based agent/representative and CB&T president Rohel Bacar signed the MOU on Sept. 21 at the New World Manila Bay Hotel in Malate, Manila for an exclusive partnership on rail maintenance and construction projects in the Philippines.
The MOU was also signed by CGC Worldwide Inc. president Gerald Cabrera, the adviser of CRRC and Ocean Eagle.
CRRC Dalian is the same company that won the contract to supply 48 new light rail vehicles for Metro Rail Transit Line 3.
Ngai said CRRC and Ocean Eagle were keen on bidding for various big ticket rail projects offered by the Philippine government and planned to submit unsolicited proposals for new rail lines or for rehabilitation and improvement of existing ones.
“We want to intensify, increase our presence in the Philippines,” Ngai said in a statement.
Bacar said CRRC Dalian was a great choice as a technology partner. Bacar said CRRC assured him that if the joint venture partners successfully bagged one or more rail projects in the Philippines, the Chinese company would set up rolling stock manufacturing activities, transfer technology and generate jobs.
“I can only see the best and genuine technology transfer with the world’s largest manufacturer of trains by granting the host country to have its own manufacturing plants and not just providing jobs but spurring the economic activity in terms of providing mobility to our cities,” Bacar said.
“The Chinese strict mass transport safety regulations are at par with the any other standards and most importantly in the international rail industry standards,” he said.
“A manufacturing and assembly plant will be faster to respond to the urgent needs of mass transport in any city in the country following the technical studies of the masterplans for each region especially metro areas,” Bacar said.
Bacar said the Chinese railway system was among the best in the world.