PARLIAMENT | Putrajaya's investments in two "extravagant" projects in Langkawi amid belt-tightening measures has been called into question.
Rafizi Ramli (PKR-Pandan) said the government, had invested through grants, capital injections and loans, a total of RM380 million in the St Regis Hotel and Langkawi International Convention Centre (LICC).
"In an environment where the government is defending cuts to petrol subsidies, Pekan (Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak) had spent the people's money on two extravagant projects in Langkawi," Rafizi told the House today.
Both the St Regis and LICC were completed in 2015, and was a joint venture between the government and Indonesia's Rajawali group.
The government abolished petrol subsidies in December 2014.
Putrajaya has said that the move was necessary due to falling oil revenues.
Rafizi said despite investing RM380 million in both projects, Putrajaya only had a 60 percent controlling stake.
Expensive 'game changers'
However he claimed Rajawali group boss Peter Sondakh invested, through other companies, just RM25 million, but has a 40 percent controlling stake.
In a written reply to Rafizi last Thursday the Finance Ministry said the St Regis and LICC were "game changers" to make Langkawi a travel destination for the high income group.
The written reply stated that both projects received support in the form of stock equities, loans from Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad (BPMB), easy government loans, and easy funds from the Public-Private Partnership Unit (Ukas).
It said for the St Regis project, the funds and loans received a total of RM327 million.
As for the LICC, the total funds and loans were RM115.5 million.- Mkini
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