Nguyen Quoc Trung, deputy general director of Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company, a Thaco unit, laid out the plan on June 18 as the group detailed its role in building the city's rail system.
The partner is a name global commuters already know. Hyundai Rotem, the rail arm of South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group, is one of the world's largest builders of trains and rolling stock.
Under an agreement signed in Hanoi on June 11, it will hand Thaco the designs, technical documentation, manufacturing processes and quality systems needed to produce locomotives and railcars, along with engineer training in South Korea and on-site support in Vietnam.
The agreement built on an April 23 contract under which Hyundai Rotem will supply 162 railcars for Ho Chi Minh City's metro lines, six fully assembled in South Korea and 156 shipped as knockdown kits for Thaco to build and assemble itself, a deliberate step up the manufacturing ladder.
Thaco plans to break ground in early July on a 320-hectare railway and engineering complex in Binh Co Ward, part of the former Binh Duong Province that was absorbed into an enlarged Ho Chi Minh City in last year's administrative overhaul.
