PM confirms Bandar Malaysia project reinstated with 'changes'

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has confirmed that his predecessor Najib Abdul Razak's Bandar Malaysia project will be reinstated but with alterations.

Mahathir said the project will have a "significant impact" on the local economy and serve as a global hub to attract international and Fortune 500 companies dealing with tech and finance.

"In line with the government's policy that such development would be people-centric and add substantive value to the economy, the plan for the project has changed," Mahathir said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur

The changes he said, include the construction of a "people's park", 10,000 affordable homes, bumiputera participation throughout the project and priority for local resources in the construction process.

Mahathir said the project will be awarded once again to the initial contractor IWH CREC Sdn Bhd - a consortium comprising Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd and China Railway Engineering Corp - because the previous administration had been “unfair” to them in terminating their agreement.

“They had been unfairly terminated. The contractor to develop Bandar Malaysia is partly government, so if we do an open tender we may not get it. 

"Somebody else may get it but we have been unfair to them (IWH CREC) so we have decided to restitute them and give them the chance to develop Bandar Malaysia,” he explained.

He said after investigating the matter, the government discovered that CREC only had a 24 percent stake in the consortium, with the rest belonging to the Malaysian company.

The government owns 40 percent of whatever stake belongs to the Malaysian company, he said.

“It is practically a government company,” he added.

As for payment, Mahathir said IWH-CREC will make an advance payment of RM500 million, in addition to the original deposit sum of RM741 million, within 60 days from the day the government officially reinstates the project.

“Like the ECRL, the Bandar Malaysia project should be viewed within the larger context of fostering and cementing long-term bilateral relations between Malaysia and China while ensuring that such projects add maximum economic value to the country.

“It should be stressed that the principle of integrity, accountability and transparency will remain paramount at all times,” Mahathir said.

IWH-CREC first won the bid for Bandar Malaysia in late 2015 but their agreement was terminated in May 2017.

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group was then speculated to take over as the master developer for massive development but that never materialised due to increased scrutiny and control from Beijing on overseas investments by Chinese companies. - Mkini