China Railway Group Ltd. announced Monday it plans to open a $2 billion regional center in a transport hub in Kuala Lumpur that it hopes will give it an edge over rivals for a coveted contract for a high-speed rail linking the Malaysian capital and Singapore.

CREC, one of China’s largest state-owned companies, will build its regional headquarters in Bandar Malaysia, a new 486-acre commercial and residential development in the city center where the proposed high-speed rail terminal will be located on the Malaysia end.

“Our regional center is here, not our competitors’. We find resources together with our local developer in infrastructure…I cannot find (anyone) who can match us,” CREC General Manager Cai Zemin told a press conference after a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel that was attended by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and a host of Cabinet ministers.

The plan to locate its regional hub here came just three months after CREC, together with its local partner Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, acquired a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia from beleaguered state-investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad for 7.41 billion ringgit ($1.82 billion).

The move is seen as linked to its attempt to get a foot in the 330-kilometer high-speed rail project that will link Bandar Malaysia with Jurong East in Singapore, a journey estimated to take about 90 minutes. Currently it takes about seven hours by train from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

“We are an infrastructure contractor. We are interested. We are waiting for the governments of Malaysia and Singapore to call for tender,” Cai said.

The ambitious project was first announced by Najib and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in February 2013. Both sides are expected to open tender by the end of this year.

Others lobbying for the lucrative contract include parties from Japan, Europe and South Korea.

“When a company like CREC decides to move, they move at a very fast speed so we have to respond at an equally fast speed,” Najib said in his speech welcoming CREC’s new headquarters.

The prime minister said he hopes CREC, which was ranked 71 last year in the U.S. business magazine Fortune 500 world’s largest companies in terms of turnover, will spur more investments from China.

He noted that Chinese investment in the manufacturing sector grew from $47 million in 2009 to $1.4 billion in 2014.