State-owned Vietnam Railway Corp. (VRC) is seeking to borrow between VND700 billion and VND800 billion to fund the construction of a new railway extension that will link Ho Chi Minh City to Cambodia's border, a corporation official said.

Nguyen Dat Tuong, director of the VRC's Department of International Relations, said the extension is part of a US$2.5 billion regional railway network that will run from Singapore to China.
"Railway directors in the seven regional countries, have decided to speed up the construction and upgrading of the network with a total length of 8,135km among them before the end of 2006, of which Vietnam will build more than 140km of new railway to connect Ho Chi Minh City to Cambodia's border," Tuong said.

The countries - Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - see the future railway network as a major boost for their tourism and trade.

The total length will include 5,382km for the Singapore-Vietnam section and 2,573km for the Bangkok-Yangon (Myanmar) section. Vietnam plans to start building the extension in 2004 and make it operational in 2006, and the country will continue to upgrade its 2,000km current network, which runs from the northeast border with China to Ho Chi Minh City, he noted.

"Railway officials of the seven countries will meet again in Myanmar in December this year to discuss how to finance the construction of new lines in Myanmar and Cambodia," Tuong said.

Vietnam is also ready to help Cambodia to build new lines and upgrade existing lines, as part of the regional effort to boost economic links.

Vietnam's railway industry currently has over 3,600km of rail, and targets revenues of US$270 million this year, up 10% on year.