China’s biggest construction company has said it is in talks about building railways in South Africa, in a sign the continent’s biggest economy could be moving towards constructing the first dedicated high-speed rail line in sub-Saharan Africa.
China Railway Group said it had had “early stage contact” with South African companies about undertaking rail projects there. South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is 20 per cent owned by the Industrialand Commercial Bank of China, subsequently confirmed it had signed a memorandum of understanding with China Railway to finance projects in the country.
Both parties stressed it was so far undecided which rail projects would be covered by any deal.