Over 6 500 staff will need to be trained abroad in preparation for the commissioning of the high-speed rail line set to link Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City from 2020.

According to the Vietnam-Japan Consulting Joint Venture (VJC), the training should span a period of five years from 2015 to 2019, thus affecting 1300 beneficiaries per year. Vietnam Railways is currently joining forces with its Japanese and Taiwanese partners to create comprehensive training programmes and work placements.

As part of Vietnam’s 2020 Rail Transport Development Strategy, recently approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and its further outlook to 2050, the building of the high-speed railway is considered to be among Vietnam’s top three infrastructure projects, requiring more than 55.8 billion dollars’ worth of investment, according to Dr Nguyen Huu Bang, Vietnam Railways’ CEO.

Since last year, said company has dispatched around a hundred or so Vietnamese railway staff and engineers to Japan for training. To date, around ten of them are approaching completion.

Within the country the railways have undertaken to arrange English and Japanese tuition for its Vietnamese staff.

The high-speed rail link should feature 27 stations along the route, with expected line speeds of 300 km/hr, enabling the 1570-kilometre journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to be covered in approximately five and a half hours.