Malaysia banks on Chinese builder to boost business along East Coast Rail Link as project relaunches after wrangling

Transport minister says securing China Communications Construction as an operator rather than just a developer is a ‘major breakthrough’

Beijing-backed firm will help spur development along 640km route following nine months in which project’s future hung in the balance

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Visitors to a showroom view a scale model of the East Coast Rail Link in Kuantan. Photo: AP

Published: 2:52pm, 25 Jul 2019Updated: 8:20pm, 25 Jul 2019

Malaysia is counting on the Chinese state-owned builder behind its East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) to lure in fresh industries along the 640km corridor to ensure the development is financially viable, transport minister Anthony Loke said on Thursday as work resumed after a nine-month pause to renegotiate the project’s terms.

At a ceremony to relaunch the suspended project, Loke said his government considered the China Communications Construction Company’s (CCCC) decision to come on board as a joint operator of the rail link – as opposed to just building it – as a “major breakthrough”. CCCC’s direct involvement in operations meant the project’s long-term success was “important and very strategic” to the Beijing-based firm – the biggest builder on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the country’s global trade strategy.

The ECRL was among a handful of China-linked projects Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ordered suspended or cancelled soon after he won last May’s elections. Photo: Reuters

The ECRL is viewed by Beijing as one of the flagship developments of the belt and road – China’s trillion dollar push to enhance infrastructure and communications connectivity between itself and the Eurasia region.

Loke said: “We are confident that we will work together with CCCC to ensure not just the reliability of the service, and the passenger trains and the cargo trains. But more so, you have products to be transported along the corridor.

“We want to tap into foreign investment, in particular from China, and as I said, the joint venture company is a very strategic move to ensure there is more participation from China investment.”

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