German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today launched Siemens' regional transportation hub here, giving Malaysia a big boost in its aim to become an industrial powerhouse.

Schroeder, who arrived here yesterday o­n the first leg of a four-nation Southeast Asian tour, lent his support to the industrial giant, which was among some 300 German companies operating in Malaysia.

He praised Siemens as a "great example of German engineering" and said its businesses in the region were a big boost to enhancing links between Germany and regional economies.

In a statement, Siemens said the launch of the hub by its Transportation Systems (TS) group was a significant move to mark its long-term commitment to the region.

Regional expansion

The hub, located at the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest office building, will focus o­n designing, engineering, training and feasibility studies for Asia-Pacific markets, it said.

The launch of the hub coincided with Siemens' move to expand regionally to tap growing markets in the region.

Siemens TS president Karl Neubeck said the firm had bid for a 400 million euros subway project in Taiwan, a 700-800 million euros project in Vietnam and another in Bangkok costing 400 million euros. o­ne euro is equivalent to RM4.39

Siemens is also preparing to bid for another project in the Philippines, he told reporters but did not elaborate.

"When we go into these major projects... we don't actually know when we get these contracts. There's a lot of ups and downs in the work where people are evaluating," said TS Asia vice-president Stefan Hofsass.

"So we need to concentrate our resources somewhere in the region and Malaysia is the ideal place."

Railway project

The launch of the hub came three days after Siemens announced it had taken over the project company charged with upgrading a Malaysian rail line from Rawang in Selangor to Ipoh in Perak.

With this, it has emerged the consortium leader of the systems engineering for the 179-kilometre railway project, which was the first section of a trans-Asian railway link stretching to China.

The take-over has raised its order book to 100 million euros, from 71 million now, Siemens said. AFP