Top Mahathir adviser to recover US$2 billion from Chinese firm over axed pipelines

Daim Zainuddin will lead talks with a Chinese state-owned firm that received large payments from the previous government, despite little evidence of work done to build two pipelines

The veteran businessman earlier this year also successfully renegotiated the terms surrounding the East Coast Rail Link, another Beijing-backed project

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Government adviser Daim Zainuddin. File photo: AP

Published: 7:04pm, 2 Oct 2019Updated: 10:28am, 3 Oct 2019

Daim Zainuddin, a top adviser to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is spearheading the Southeast Asian country’s efforts to claw back 8.3 billion ringgit (US$1.98 billion) paid to a Chinese state-owned firm that was meant to build two now-aborted gas pipelines.

In comments to the national news agency Bernama on Wednesday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng revealed Daim’s role as “chief negotiator” in the talks over the projects awarded in 2016 to China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP).

Daim, 81, is reprising a similar role he played earlier this year in the country’s successful renegotiation of the terms surrounding the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project – another controversial Beijing-backed project that Mahathir put under review after his return to the prime minister’s seat following last year’s general election.

Daim’s influence in the government – despite not being an elected official – has raised some eyebrows in Malaysia, but Lim told Bernama he saw no issues with the veteran businessman leading the latest talks.

Daim served two stints as finance minister during Mahathir’s first tenure as premier in 1981-2003. Most recently, he served as chair of a Council of Eminent Persons appointed by Mahathir to help with power transition issues soon after last May’s polls.