Siemens AG, Germany's largest engineering company, said it won a 46 million euro (US$57 million) contract to supply Vietnam Railways with diesel-electric locomotives.
The contract calls for unit Siemens Transportation Systems Group to supply 16 73-4 tonne locomotives, the first of which would be delivered in 2006, the company said in a statement distributed during Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's meeting on Saturday with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.
Schroeder was in Vietnam to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting, which ended on Saturday.
Vietnam and the EU announced on Saturday they had reached an agreement on the Asian country's accession to the WTO. Vietnam, which wants to enter the organization by the end of next year, is still in talks on its accession with countries including Australia, Canada, China, Japan and the US.
"Representatives of the business community that have come with me have assured me that Vietnam is going to be a more and more important market to them," Schroeder told journalists in Hanoi on Saturday.
"There will be enhanced activity by the German business community once Vietnam is a member of the World Trade Organization," he said.
The order, which gives Siemens an opening into narrow-gauge locomotive market in Southeast Asia, is in cooperation with German train-equipment supplier Vossloh AG, Siemens said.
Vietnam Railways plans to use the locomotives for freight and passenger services between the capital of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Siemens said.
Siemens also wants to take part in a plan to build a metro system in Ho Chi Minh City, Schroeder said.
A feasibility study released last year for the metro project, which would carry as many as 180,000 passengers a day, said a preferred two-line, 20km system would require investment of at least US$795 million.
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