The most hilarious high speed train project...between Japan and India

  The Indonesia high speed train has been running more than a year and the Indonesians are enjoying every minute of it, smooth, fast, modern and luxurious. Indonesia is the first Asean country after Laos to have this advanced and convenient mode of transportation. India, Thailand and Vietnam also contracted to build high speed trains at about the same time as Indonesia, to Japan, their 'most trusted, reliable and technologically superior' high speed train manufacturer.

Not sure about what happened to the projects in Thailand and Vietnam. But both had stalled and practically nothing was done, leaving the two countries frustrated, angry and still hoping that the 'trustworthy and reliable' Japanese would do their part to complete the projects.

India's case was a bit exceptional. The projected was initially won by the Chinese. But the Japanese undercut the Chinese and hijacked the project with 'cheaper price' and many too good to believe promises. India was delighted by this god given project from their good friend Japan.

With the high cost of labour and everything in Japan, the Japanese cannot by any means, charge anything lesser than the Chinese. This already smell a fish. Other than politics and wanting to undermine the Chinese, maybe the Japanese were planning to snook the Indians in some other ways to make profit from the project. The Japanese were never in the habit of making losses in such a big project costing billion. Here is the catch. Somewhere, somehow, the Indians would be squeezed to cough out more money to pay the Japanese...substandard parts and material, over and above, ...

The Indians too were rubbing their hands, how to squeeze out more from the Japanese. Transfer of technology must be top priority in the Indian mind. Delay payment for a hundred years, or demanding for more time, finding faults with the projects to demand compensation, accusing the Japanese for violating Indian laws to fine the Japanese etc etc were all in the cards.

This is a hilarious project from the start with both sides waiting to fix the other, to snook the other, to cheat and profit from the project. When both parties have such dubious intent, insincerity, there is no chance for the project to take off. Japan smelt a rat early when the Indians started to make ridiculous and unreasonable demands and decided to wipe their hands and let the project stall. The Indians thought the Japanese were easy to cheat, especially knowing that the Japanese were desperate to steal the project from the Chinese and likely to accept all the demands from the Indians. The Indians did not expect that the 'trustworthy and reliable' Japanese would just drop the project like a hot potato and simply walk away, leaving the Indians to hold the baby, stillbirth.

This is a story of two clever snakes trying to out snake each other from the start. A classic case study for MBA programmes.