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ompetition to develop Indonesia'€™s first high-speed train is getting fiercer after Japan provided a new proposal for the project, which could upset its Chinese rival.

Unhappy with Japan'€™s new proposal, Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xie Feng met with Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution on Friday to seek clarification.

Xie arrived at the ministry at around 2 p.m., and he appeared upset. '€œWe hope all sides will respect the rules set down by the Indonesian government. One feasibility study? No more!'€ he said while rushing to the elevator.

However, about an hour later the ambassador came out of the meeting smiling.

'€œWhat I can say now is that it was a very good meeting. I am optimistic as ever. China has offered the best plan for the project and I have full confidence in our proposal,'€ he told reporters after the meeting .

The Chinese proposal was apparently challenged by Japan when Hiroto Izumi '€” a special advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe '€” paid a visit to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo on Wednesday.

Izumi offered additional terms in Japan'€™s high-speed train proposal during his meeting at the State Palace. He claimed that Japan wanted to help Indonesia develop a high-speed railway and place it under Indonesian ownership and management.

The new Japanese proposal offers additional terms, including lower viability gap funding for the government.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has already completed an initial study phase for the high-speed project that will connect Jakarta with Bandung. The project is estimated to cost around US$6 billion.

Part of that investment is expected to come from the state budget. In JICA'€™s view, 74 percent of the cost should be funded by a new state-owned enterprise that would operate the rail network. The remaining 10 and 16 percent of the cost should come from the state budget and the private sector respectively.

According to Darmin, Japan has also agreed to lower its demand for a guarantee from the Indonesian government to 50 from 100 percent.

However, Jokowi seems to oppose this idea and he has previously stated that no state funds should be used to finance the development of the country'€™s first bullet train.

The Chinese proposal, on the other hand, forecasts that $5.5 billion would be required for the project. Furthermore, the forecast states that the project could be completed within three years.

The Chinese camp also claims that it is immediately ready to work on the project, and could partner with Indonesia'€™s state-owned enterprises without utilizing funds from the state coffers.

It hopes to form a joint venture model for the project and estimates that Indonesian content for the project would reach close to 60 percent of the total development.

Darmin said that China would not submit a new proposal to counter the one offered by Japan.

'€œWe have to be fair. We told them that Japan had submitted an additional proposal and that they were welcome to do the same, but they refused to do so,'€ he said.

According to Darmin, no change had occurred regarding the deadline of the evaluation. The deadline itself is set for Aug. 31. '€œWe will deliver the results to the President the following day,'€ he said. The government has appointed the Boston Consulting Group to help assess the respective merits of the two proposals.

Separately, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the ministry would soon offer its recommendation regarding the bullet train project to the coordinating economic minister. Jonan initially opposed the project, saying that infrastructure development on the country'€™s outermost islands was more important than a bullet train connecting Jakarta and Bandung.

Economist and environmentalist Emil Salim, who is also former transportation minister, said that the bullet train project was not in line with the government'€™s program to evenly distribute infrastructure development and would only leave the country'€™s inequality problem unresolved.