TOKYO, Aug. 14 (AFP) – Vietnam plans to use Japanese bullet-train technology for a transnational rail link, the chief executive of state-owned Vietnam Railways Corp. was quoted Thursday as telling Japanese media.

The Vietnam government had already given basic approval for the Shinkansen system, although it still required financing and formal consent from the prime minister, Nguyen Huu Bang reportedly told the Nikkei business daily.

Funding for the $56-billion project remained riddled with uncertainties, the report said, with Hanoi seeking Japanese aid and funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The 1,560-kilometer (970 mile) high-speed rail link would replace the current colonial-era train line connecting the capital Hanoi with the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, a journey that now takes three days.

Vietnam hopes to launch the high-speed trains by 2020 and plans to start by building three sections, including a 90-kilometer stretch between the central coastal cities of Danang and Hue, seen as potentially most profitable.

The Nikkei said Japan's government and its railway industry, facing saturation domestically, want to expand the market overseas for Shinkansen trains and have high hopes for the potential in Vietnam.

However, the report added that cost estimates were still seen as inadequate, and that Japan was believed to have suggested that Vietnam postpone the planned opening of the high-speed rail service until 2036 or later.

Vietnam Railways Corp. in Hanoi declined to comment on the report.

Meanwhile, shares of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and other Japanese train makers jumped after a report that Vietnam's state-run railway firm plans to use Japan's bullet-train technology in building its high-speed railroad system. Japan's near half-century experience with its ''Shinkansen'' bullet train system, with zero fatalities to date, puts the country's firms in a strong position to win orders in a global railway investment boom.

''This is not just about Vietnam. If Japan manages to export its Shinkansen technology to Vietnam, that would help it export it to others including bigger countries like Brazil and the United States,'' said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.