FT: Maglev tech transfer rejected
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-06-03 09:02
German officials have rejected China's demands for access to sensitive
technology in exchange for building a 4.3 billion dollar high-tech rail link
between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the Financial Times says.
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel views the worlds only operating high-speed magnetic
levitation train called the Maglev in Shanghai. German officials have
rejected China's demands for access to sensitive technology in exchange
for building the 4.3 billion dollar high-tech rail link between Shanghai
and Hangzhou, the Financial Times says.
[AFP] |
The newspaper said Berlin officials
refused to give in to Chinese pressure to sign off on an agreement on the
magnetic levitation (Maglev) train prior to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's
visit to China last month.
Chinese officials approved the building of a new 170-kilometre (105-mile)
track in March but discussions with the companies have been going slowly as
Beijing is looking for significant technology transfers and funding as the price
of admission.
At a meeting in Beijing last week, German Transport Minister Wolfgang
Tiefensee rejected requests from the head of China's National Maglev
Transportation Technology Research Center for German government funding, the
newspaper said.
It also quoted a Berlin official as dismissing suggestions in the Chinese
media last week that the German side had agreed to transfer "core aspects" of
the Maglev technology to China to secure the contract.
"We want to stick to conditions agreed for the (Shanghai) airport track.
Levitation and engine technologies will remain in German hands," one person
close to the companies said.
Beijing has been in talks for years with Transrapid International, a joint
venture between engineering giants Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, over building the
world's second commercial high-speed maglev track.
Shanghai operates the world's only commercial Maglev system on a 30-kilometre
(19-mile) run between Shanghai's financial district and its Pudong airport.
Germany provided 10 percent of the one billion dollar budget for the Shanghai
airport link.
The newspaper cited a Transrapid International spokesman as saying that talks
were ongoing over the second rail line that China is keen to finish ahead of the
2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai.
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