Can Korea's KTX Run in Turkey?

Next-generation KTX (Provided by Korail)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The government will actively support the export of KTX high-speed rail technology to Turkey.

On the 3rd, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a video conference with the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure to support the export of high-speed rail vehicles to the Turkish market by Korean companies and the winning of the Halkalı~Gebze high-speed rail construction project, and discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral cooperation foundation, including revising the railway cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the Ministry announced on the 4th.

Turkey is undertaking a large-scale expansion of social overhead capital (SOC) in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic in 2023. In particular, the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is promoting the construction of the Halkalı~Gebze high-speed rail network (total length 143 km) connecting Europe and Asia. This project is worth about 5 trillion won, and in addition, a large-scale purchase project of 94 trainsets of high-speed rail vehicles is also planned.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, together with the Korea Railroad Research Institute and the Korea Rail Network Authority, has been conducting high-level order support activities through video conferences with the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure to promote the excellence of Korean railway companies wishing to enter the Turkish high-speed rail market and to express the government's willingness for cooperation between the two countries.

Through this meeting, the Ministry emphasized that Korea can be a good partner for Turkey's railway projects by introducing the advantages of private investment railway projects based on Korea's experience of becoming a self-reliant country in high-speed rail technology in a short period of time.

The Korea Railroad Research Institute emphasized its role as the leading institution in Korea's high-speed rail technology self-reliance and introduced that public-private cooperation can support Turkey's railway technology self-reliance through this high-speed vehicle purchase project. The Korea Rail Network Authority also shared Korea's experience in private investment railway projects with Turkey to promptly promote the Halkalı~Gebze project, which remains an unconnected section of the Europe-Asia connecting high-speed rail network, and proposed a private investment project model applicable to this route.

Meanwhile, both countries agreed on the necessity to revise the 'Korea-Turkey Railway Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)' signed in 2017 to strengthen the railway cooperation foundation and discussed the revision. They agreed to expand the foundation for new cooperative projects by adding areas such as public-private partnership (PPP) development, high-speed vehicle technology transfer and joint production, and railway safety cooperation to the MOU cooperation fields.

Kim Sun-tae, Director of the Railway Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, evaluated, "This Korea-Turkey railway authorities video conference is a meaningful opportunity to open the way for Korean railway companies, which are struggling due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), to enter overseas markets," and said, "As the Turkish railway market is expected to grow significantly in the future, we will build multifaceted railway cooperation relations so that both countries can advance as successful partners in the railway sector."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.