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Agencies

Malaysia is dropping a plan for a high-speed rail link between its capital Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and will talk with its southern neighbour about the agreement to build it, Malaysia’s prime minister said in an interview published on Monday.
Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old who triumphed over scandal-plagued Najib Razak in a general election this month, has made it a priority to cut the national debt and pledged to review major projects agreed by the previous government.
“We need to do away with some of the unnecessary projects, for example the high-speed rail, which is going to cost us RM110 billion (US$28 billion) and will not earn us a single cent. That will be dropped,” Mahathir told the Financial Times.
The project, valued by analysts at about US$17 billion, was out for tender and was expected to be completed by 2026.
Does China have the inside track in race with Japan for Singapore-Malaysia high-speed rail contract?
Rail firms from China, Japan and South Korea had expressed interest in bidding for the project.
The 350-kilometre bullet-train line from Singapore to Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur was expected to slash travel times to 90 minutes from the five or more hours by road today.

Mahathir had previously said there were high financial penalties for pulling out of the project and Malaysia would try to find out how it could reduce those costs.
“We have an agreement with Singapore,” Mahathir said. “We have to talk with Singapore about dropping that project.”
Singapore’s transport ministry said later Monday that it hadn’t received any official notification from Malaysia, adding that both sides had agreed to proceed with the high-speed rail link “based on mutual benefits”.
What’s pushing Chinese high-speed train projects off the rails overseas?
The agreement for the rail project was signed in 2016, and was overseen by then-Malaysian Prime Minister Naib and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, who proposed the idea together in 2013.
Najib said at the time: “One can have breakfast in Kuala Lumpur, lunch in Singapore, and be back in time for dinner in Kuala Lumpur”.


Mahathir has also said his government was haggling with Chinese partners over the terms of a US$14 billion rail deal aimed at connecting the South China Sea at the Thai border in the east with the strategic shipping routes of the Strait of Malacca in the west.
He estimated that Malaysia could cut almost a fifth of its US$250 billion national debt and liabilities by scrapping such big projects.
Mahathir is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances after the government reported that debt was higher than previously disclosed under the former administration.
The prime minister had earlier announced plans to revoke a controversial goods and services tax that was intended to rake in 43.8 billion ringgit (US$11.05 billion) this year, and reinstate fuel subsidies amid rising oil prices.
Najib has faced two rounds of questioning from Malaysia’s anti-graft agency over a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at state investment fund 1MDB following his shock election loss on May 9.
The former leader and his wife Rosmah Mansor have been barred from leaving the country after the new government reopened an investigation into the scandal.
Police have raided Najib’s home and other properties linked to him, seizing hundreds of expensive designer handbags and luggage stuffed with cash, jewellery and other valuables.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press


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Malaysia

Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad announces plan to scrap high-speed rail project with Singapore

Mahathir, who was swept into power in a surprise election win this month, is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (L) shakes hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (R) during a joint press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya on December 13, 2016 following an official agreement signing ceremony for the construction of a high speed rail link between the city-state and Kuala Lumpur. / AFP PHOTO / MANAN VATSYAYANA

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad: ‘We need to do away with some of the unnecessary projects, for example the high-speed rail’. Photo: AFP

Does China have the inside track in race with Japan for Singapore-Malaysia high-speed rail contract?

Attendants pose for a photo beside the models of a high-speed train during the China High Speed Railway on Fast Track exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia. China is competing for a contract to build a high-speed railway connecting Singapore and Malaysia. Photo: Reuters

A visitor looks at a model of the proposed Bandar Malaysia development, which Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn. and China Railway Engineering Corp. bought 60 percent of in December last year for 7.41 billion ringgit, stands in a showroom in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. The development will host terminals for a planned high-speed rail line connecting Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and has an estimated sales value of 150 billion ringgit. Photographer: Charles Pertwee/Bloomberg

Workers clean a high-speed train in Chongqing, southwest China. Photo: AFP

TO GO WITH AFP STORY Malaysia-politics-reform-vote-Mahathir,INTERVIEW by Dan Martin In a picture taken on June 14, 2012, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks during an interview with the Agence France-Fresse (AFP) at his office in Kuala Lumpur. Influential former strongman Mahathir Mohamad has thrown his weight behind a Malaysian conservative pushback against growing calls for change, saying reform could lift the lid on ethnic tensions. AFP PHOTO / Saeed KHAN

epa06052432 A handout photo made available by the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaking during the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China, 27 June 2017. EPA/BENEDIKT VON LOEBELL/WEF HANDOUT HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Malaysia PM’s to-do list: cut costs, rein in US$251 billion debt, review MH370 search contract

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his cabinet members. Photo: EPA

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves the Anti-Corruption Agency in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Tuesday, May 22, 2018. Najib was interrogated Tuesday over a corruption scandal that could lead to criminal charges against him as the country's new anti-graft chief said investigations into the case were suppressed by intimidation during Najib's rule. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

epa06756835 A handout photo made available by Malaysia Minister of Economic Affairs, Azmin Ali Office shows Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (C), Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (2-L), Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (L), Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (2-R) and Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu (R) chairing their first cabinet meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia, 23 May 2018. Malaysia will cut the salaries of its Cabinet ministers by 10 percent with immediate effect, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced on 23 May. EPA-EFE/MALAYSIA MINISTER OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, AZMIN ALI OFFICE HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

This undated handout picture released Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 by the company Ocean Infinity shows the vessel 'Seabed Constructor' which has been dispatched to the southern Indian Ocean to search for the wreckage of the missing plane, MH370. Malaysia's government said Wednesday it will pay U.S. company Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months, in a renewed bid to solve the plane's disappearance nearly four years ago. (Ocean Infinity via AP)

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

Mahathir, who was swept into power in a surprise election win this month, is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances


Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old who triumphed over scandal-plagued Najib Razak in a general election this month, has made it a priority to cut the national debt and pledged to review major projects agreed by the previous government.


Mahathir Mohamad

Singapore

Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad announces plan to scrap high-speed rail project with Singapore

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Mahathir, who was swept into power in a surprise election win this month, is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances

Mahathir, who was swept into power in a surprise election win this month, is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances