South Korea is reportedly competing with France and Japan to win the Brazilian high-speed railway construction contract.

According to the Brazilian daily “O Estado de São Paolo,” the head of Brazil's National Agency of Transportation, Bernardo Figueiredo, said that consortia from the three countries are the most active players in the race to the high-speed railway deal.

The newspaper said that the South Korean consortium is led by Samsung, the Japanese one by Mitsui and the French one by Alstom.

Figueiredo said that all the three countries have promised to offer financial support in the case of winning the railway construction order. Japan is promising the financial support of 10 billion dollars.

The 511-kilometer high-speed railway will connect the cities of Campinas, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazil will select the preferred bidder in late July.