Kota SAS, a new township for Pahang’s administrative centre, is one of the planned stations along the East Coast Rail Link. (Source: channelnewsasia.com)Hanoi (VNA) - The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project between Malaysia and China is likely to besigned on April 12 in Beijing after many months of negotiation, according toMalaysian media.
Sin Chew Daily cited a source in the Malaysian negotiationteam, who said the Malaysian Prime Minister's special envoy, Tun DaimZainuddin, had arrived in Beijing to negotiate the final details.
The newspaper also reported that Daim planned to hold a pressconference at the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing to inform the results of thenegotiation.
Malaysian Minister for Economic Affairs Azmin Ali spoke on April 8 that the twosides hoped their negotiation to finish before PM Mahathir Mohamad visits China to attend the Belt and Road Initiative Forumon April 26.
Last week, Finance Minister of Malaysia Lim Guan Eng said he hoped the negotiationwould go well.
As part of efforts to reduce Malaysia’s national debts, Mahathir has directedthe examination of large-scale infrastructure projects signed during the tenureof former PM Najib Razak.
On January 26, Ali said that Malaysia would cancel the ECRL project due to thehigh annual interest payment that the country would have incurred.
Accordingto the minister, the Malaysian Government decided to cancel theproject as the country could not afford the 500-million-RM annual interest onthe project.-VNA
VNA
