Hanoi (VNA) – MalaysianPM Mahathir Mohamad has revealed that the country may cancel the project toconstruct the EastCoast Railway Line (ECRL) with China if renegotiations fail.
Speakingafter a cabinet meeting on June 6, thePM said that the ECRL is so costly for Malaysia, with its contract containingmany unreasonable terms, including that on payment.
He stated thatMalaysia wants to renegotiate the project to ensure Malaysia will not spend toomuch money, adding that the government is still considering the contract and afinal decision has yet to be made.
The 66 billion ringgit(16.6 billion USD) ECRL project aims to build a 668km railway connecting Malaysia’s biggestport of Klang in Selangor with the border of Thailand. Currently, the projecthas been completed by nearly 20 percent. If Malaysia cancels it, the countrymay have to pay 22 billion ringgit (about 5.53 billion USD) as compensation.
Earlier,the Finance Ministry of Malaysia discovered some problems in a 9.4 billionringgit (2.36 billion USD) contract with China to build oil pipe line.Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that two projects – thelong-distance pipeline MPP and trans-Sabah gas pipeline project (TSGP) havebeen completed by only 13 percent, but nearly 88 percent of their value hasbeen paid.
Contractsof the two projects were signed in 2016 between Malaysia and China. MinisterLim said that the projects were reported to the Malaysia’s anti-corruption committeelast week. The cases were also reported to PM Mahathir Mohamad.-VNA
Speakingafter a cabinet meeting on June 6, thePM said that the ECRL is so costly for Malaysia, with its contract containingmany unreasonable terms, including that on payment.
He stated thatMalaysia wants to renegotiate the project to ensure Malaysia will not spend toomuch money, adding that the government is still considering the contract and afinal decision has yet to be made.
The 66 billion ringgit(16.6 billion USD) ECRL project aims to build a 668km railway connecting Malaysia’s biggestport of Klang in Selangor with the border of Thailand. Currently, the projecthas been completed by nearly 20 percent. If Malaysia cancels it, the countrymay have to pay 22 billion ringgit (about 5.53 billion USD) as compensation.
Earlier,the Finance Ministry of Malaysia discovered some problems in a 9.4 billionringgit (2.36 billion USD) contract with China to build oil pipe line.Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that two projects – thelong-distance pipeline MPP and trans-Sabah gas pipeline project (TSGP) havebeen completed by only 13 percent, but nearly 88 percent of their value hasbeen paid.
Contractsof the two projects were signed in 2016 between Malaysia and China. MinisterLim said that the projects were reported to the Malaysia’s anti-corruption committeelast week. The cases were also reported to PM Mahathir Mohamad.-VNA
VNA
