SMRT has been signed as one of the partners for the upcoming PT Jakarta Monorail project in Indonesia. A partnership agreement was signed at Jakarta's City Hall with SMRT together with six other companies last week, for the contract worth 8 trillion rupiah (S$1.04 billion).

"We are very happy to be able to play a part in the development of Jakarta Monorail as part of this consortium, and we look forward to working very closely with the different stakeholders to make this project a success," SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek told The Sunday Times.

ST Electronics is another local company to be involved together with Thailand's BTS, operator of Bangkok's Skytrain, China's Changchun Railway Vehicle Corporation (CNR), China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) on top of TUV Rheinland from Germany and Indonesian telecommunications company Indosat.

The construction project initially started in 2004 but stopped due to a lack of funding. Despite earlier efforts to revive the project under a new developer - the project was abandoned all together in 2008 leaving a series of concrete pillars standing. The central government of Indonesia had once again decided to revive the project at the start of the year to solve the capitals infamous traffic situation.

"A project like Singapore's MRT is our shared dream, in particular that of governor Joko Widodo," Jakarta Monorail Director, Ms Sukmawaty Syukur, said at the signing ceremony. Mr Widodo visited Singapore three months ago and met officials to learn about the country's experiences in public transport planning and management. "This collaboration represents the aspirations of our people to see Jakarta become like major world cities," Mr Widodo told reporters yesterday.