California looks to build high-speed rail in cooperation with China

China's success in building advanced infrastructure is getting attention from countries around the world including the US, where aging roadways, railways, airports and ports are in dire need of improvement.

In San Francisco, Chinese and US political and business leaders, from both the public and private sectors, met to develop new partnerships at the China-US Infrastructure Cooperation Forum. One such collaborative project is California's high-speed railway.

High-speed railway is China’s area of expertise. Of the 20,000 kilometers of railway in China, 12,000 are high-speed, and the number is expected to double by 2020.

California has welcomed Chinese technology and investment, and Chad Edison, California Deputy Secretary for Transportation, said they are “getting ready to do an early train operator selection and also working on rolling stock procurements and more construction packages coming”.

But all of this will cost a lot of money, and the government alone can't cover the estimated 3.6 trillion US dollars that will be needed by 2020 for infrastructure improvements.

Finance experts say the US has to catch up in the area of public-private sector partnerships in the infrastructure space, traditionally funded by public money.

However, the forum was not just about US needs. China's Belt and Road Initiative was mentioned many times as a way for American companies to take part in big infrastructure projects in Asia and Europe, but only if the US chooses to participate.