We are happy to bring you yet another issue of On Track, Scomi's e-newsletter, featuring current news on urban transportation. Read all about the inroads we are making in Bahrain, our business interests in Brazil and our potential joint venture on the Bangalore Monorail. There are other enlightening articles on urban transportation from around the world, so sit back and have a good read.

Scomi Rail Bhd moved one step closer towards securing the Sau Paulo Monorail Project when it entered into a Joint Bidding Agreement with CR Almeida S.A. Engenharia de Obras, a leading construction company in Brazil.

The move was in line with the aggressive efforts made by Scomi Rail, CR Almeida and the Brazilian Monorail Consortium ("BMC") to promote monorail systems as viable solutions to urban traffic woes.

Prior to this, representatives of Scomi attended a four-city tour of Brazil in February to present Scomi's credentials and assess business opportunities there. While in Brazil the duo met potential construction partners for civil infrastructure and made site visits to several large projects under construction.

The agreement allows Scomi Rail and CR Almeida to work together to submit proposals for tenders issued by the city for five monorail lines. The monorail projects will be implemented under a turnkey basis with Scomi as systems supplier and designer while CR Almeida undertakes the civil construction works. The total length of the monorail lines is 70 km with a potential value of USD3 billion.

Prior to the signing of the agreement, BMC delegates also visited Malaysia in mid June on a fact-finding mission regarding monorail projects. While here, representatives from Scomi Rail arranged for the delegation to meet with embassy officials, visit the KL Monorail as well as take a guided tour of Scomi's new North KL Facility. BMC delegates also attended the Asian O&G Exhibition that was on at the time.

After their time in Malaysia, the delegates headed to India where they visited the Mumbai Monorail Project that Scomi Rail is a part of. While there, they also met with project team members and local authorities.

The Brazilian Federal Government has allocated a significant budget for public infrastructure specifically for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Naturally there is a high demand for transportation solutions in many of the large cities including the 12 host cities of the World Cup.

The country presents many opportunities for the Scomi Group for both transportation solutions and oil and gas products and services. Scomi's next visit to Brazil is expected to coincide with the issue of the tender where a team of specialists will carry out necessary engineering studies to obtain mandatory information for the submission of the bid.

The Gulf States is a primary market for Scomi Rail and Coach and now parties in the Kingdom of Bahrain have shown interest in Scomi for urban traffic solutions and systems. This is due in large part to the high-level marketing efforts of Scomi to pursue opportunities and respond promptly to potential projects, including a half-day seminar in Manama City, Bahrain.

At the seminar that was held on 22 June 2009, Scomi announced an aggressive strategy to work closely with the governments in the Middle East to promote monorail systems as a viable public transportation solution to urban traffic woes. Present were top government officials and key industry leaders from the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Finance and the General Traffic Directorate of Bahrain. Close to 40 people attended the seminar including officials from EAG Capital and the Al-Fanar Group.

The seminar was held as part of the Company's efforts to position itself as a market leader in design and manufacturing as well as turnkey specialists of monorail systems especially in the vibrant Middle East market.

The seminar is a result of government-to-government ("G2G") relations by the Ministry of Works through the Construction Industry Development Board ("CIDB") Malaysia and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ("MITI") through the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation ("MATRADE") in aggressively promoting Malaysian companies and services globally.

"One of the key challenges for governments and public transportation operators in the Middle East and around the world is improving the overall economics of transportation systems. Explosive growth in the demand for efficient and reliable public transportation while having to work on tight public budgets presents significant challenges to many governments, particularly those in urban centres grappling with rapid growth and congestion. We are optimistic about the future opportunities for growth out there, and we are actively affecting the landscape of the business to take advantage of these," added Shah Hakim Zain, Scomi Group CEO.

The KL Monorail transports an average of 70,000 passengers daily and it hit its 100-million passenger mark on 7 July 2009.

The 100 millionth passenger; a quantity surveyor won a 40-inch Sony Bravia LCD television set. Meanwhile, the lucky 100,000,001st passenger also received a Sony LCD television the 999,999,999th passenger were given a Sony audio system.

The three passengers were also respectively given RM150, RM100 and RM50 worth of stored value tickets by KL Monorail, as a show of appreciation for the support of its passengers.

KL Monorail started its first full year of operations in 2004 and operates the links between KL Sentral at Brickfields and Titiwangsa at Jalan Tun Razak.

KL StarRail, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Syarikat Prasarana Negara (Prasarana), appointed to manage the KL Monorail system. Prasarana is a wholly-owned government company under the Ministry of Finance, which was set up to own the assets of selected public transport companies.

These ideas were part discussed during the LandCorp C2030 Summit with speakers from University of WA Professor of Architecture Richard Weller, former Australian Defence Force Chief Gen. Peter Cosgrove, transport mogul Lindsay Fox and former WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief John Langoulant.

Some of the ideas put forth were to look at other booming cities as guidance of the types of metropolis that would suit the city and that Perth should be an envision of the "cultural centre" of the Indian Ocean rim.

The summit is designed to engage planners, government and the community in exploring Western Australia's critical infrastructure needs. The summit also involves other initiatives such as surveys, conferences, online forums and school participation.

The unveiled vision of cityscape revealed a city in the vein of "Jerusalem, Athens or Rome" that would embody "truth, beauty and grandeur". fitting the President's philosophy of a futuristic and eco-friendly metropolis.

Mr. Sarkozy urged architects to 'be audacious,' when he announced the project of an internation competition to create a vision for the city. Mr. Sarkozy urged top architects and designers on applications of energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive technology to create the first 'post-Kyoto' urban centre.

Some of the biggest names in architecture have accepted the challenge namely, Jean Nouvel of France, Richard Rogers of Britain and Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands. 38 groups submitted proposals last month but Mr. Sarkozy is only expected to announce the 10 winning teams later which will each produce an in-depth plan by year's end.

The competition has been welcomed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for creative thinking on a large scale in a European setting.

Paris, dubbed a "living museum" for its well-preserved splendour, is one of the world's most visited cities but it is also one of Europe's smallest capitals with a population of only 2 million people. But poor transport and inequality between prosperous areas and isolated, under-resourced council estates have limited the region's potential.

The monorail will be key to a poor transport links as well, as some isolated estates only 15km from Paris have such poor transport links that it can take almost two hours to reach the city centre.

(Picture courtesy of NYTimes www.nytimes.com)