PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) signed an agreement with Malaysian partners on Thursday on a joint railway expertise training program to facilitate Malaysia's railway development.
The training program, which is sponsored by CCCC and operated by Malaysia Rail Link Company and Universiti Malaysia Pahang, would nurture skilled workers for Malaysia's East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and to be in the country's rapid railway development.
The 688-km ECRL will be an electric railway line linking Malaysia's less-developed states on the east coast of the peninsula to the developed area.
It will accommodate passenger trains at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour and goods trains at a maximum speed of 80 km per hour.
ECRL is being built by the CCCC and the construction is expected to be completed by 2024.
Darwis Abdul Razak, chief executive of Malaysia Rail Link Company that owns ECRL, said the training program would facilitate the upskilling of up to 3,600 trainees with interests in the rail industry from 2017 to 2022.
Malaysia Rail Link said the syllabus for the training program were formulated by two prominent Chinese universities, namely, Beijing Jiaotong University and Southwest Jiaotong University, which also serve as railway technology training partners with the state-owned CCCC.
The first intake of 50 people have commenced their three-month training starting from September.
Darwis pointed out that trainees that have completed the program would be automatically offered employment by either his company or the CCCC.
He said the program was the brainchild of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to equip Malaysians with the knowledge and experiences in the railway industry. Enditem
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