China hails bid to revive ECRL
Envoy: It’s a win-win for both nations
BATU GAJAH: China remains optimistic about the revival of the shelved East Coast Railway (ECRL) project and is hoping for a win-win situation that will benefit both parties, said its envoy.
China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian said both governments had been talking to each other about the 688km rail connection from Port Klang in Selangor to Pengkalan Kubor in Kelantan and they agreed that the negotiations should be between the contractor and the project owner.
“We are now waiting for the reports of these negotiations. I hope they will come up with a win-win solution in the spirit of mutual respect, goodwill, mutual benefits and equal footing,” he said.
The ECRL, he added, would benefit Malaysians as it provided an affordable means of transport.
“In today’s world, many countries are developing their rail transportation system and this is also true for Malaysia,” he said when visiting the CRRC Kuala Lumpur Maintenance Sdn Bhd Rolling Stock Centre here with Transport Minister Anthony Loke yesterday.
Loke said that the Malaysian government had yet to make a final decision on the project.
They were responding to a statement from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the ECRL might be revived but on a smaller scale.
The previous government had approved the RM81bil project that was to have been built in two phases but it was put on hold after Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the 14th General Election on May 9.
Dr Mahathir had said that the contract and loan terms were unfavourable to Malaysia.
The construction was to be handled by China Communication Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) while the financing was to be provided by Export-Import Bank of China.
On another matter, Loke invited China to continue investing in Malaysia to develop its railway transportation industry.
He said he would like to see Malaysianmade equipment being used within the South-East Asia region as each country developed its own railway system.
“Railway is one of the areas where we can see strong collaboration between Malaysia and China,” he said, adding that major cities in the region were demanding rolling cars for their own systems.
He said it was also his hope for the Malaysian CRRC plant to increase its capacity as China continued to boost its investment.
This, he said, would mean increasing production and including other services such as maintenance and overhaul so that whole sets could be produced in Malaysia.
The current CRRC plant, which started operations about three years ago with a total investment of RM400mil, had the capacity to produce 200 train cars a year.
About 85% of its workforce is made up of Malaysians.