Malaysia will not pay any compensation to Singapore for the deferment of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project as the decision was mutually agreed, said International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali.
Azmin, who leads Malaysia’s side in the HSR discussions with Singapore, said technical teams from both countries would meet after Hari Raya to further discuss the technical aspects of the mega project.
"In principle, we’ve agreed that this particular project is beneficial to both countries but we need to sit down and discuss the technicalities of this project.
"So, we need more time. (Hopefully) we can conclude the whole exercise within three to four months and certainly, we will meet again," he told reporters after officiating Miti’s 2019 Excellence Awards ceremony today.
On May 31, both governments announced they were deferring the construction of the RM110 billion bilateral project again until Dec 31, 2020.
The 350km-long project has been suspended since Sept 2018 and was set to resume at the end of May 2020.
It was the second time the HSR was suspended with Malaysia remitting US$15 million to Singapore to cover the costs of the delayed project.
"The mandate given to us when we deferred the project in 2018 until 2020 was to look again at the costing of the project (such as) new alignments and new designs.
"Alhamdulillah, we're able to reduce (the cost) substantially for HSR, but now we have agreed to continue the project (to resume after being deferred the first time)," he said.
Asked on whether the government has enough allocation to pay any additional costs arising from the second deferment, Azmin said: "For that allocation, we need to discuss again.
“The question of funding for the project will be discussed because the country’s fiscal ability now is definitely limited,” he added.
- Bernama
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