Pakatan supports China’s Belt and Road initiative — Dr M

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan is receptive to China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative but will still reevaluate its place in Malaysia’s context, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In a press conference here, the prime-minister-elect said it was vital to determine the programme’s effects on Malaysia’s finances and the region’s stability.

“As far as the Belt and Road (OBOR) problem is concerned, we have no problem with that, except of course, we would not like to see too many warships in this area, because warships attract other warships, and this place may become tense because of the presence of warships,” he said.

The OBOR is among China’s most ambitious trade initiatives, in which the republic underwrote billions of dollars for infrastructure investments in countries located along the Silk Road linking it to Europe.

The previous Barisan Nasional administration of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had made Malaysia a part of the initiative.

Dr Mahathir stressed that the review of Malaysia’s part in the OBOR was just one of many matters to be revisited by his incoming administration.

He said this was because China has shown that it was skilled at getting the better end of such agreements.

“In the first place, we need to study all the things done by the previous government. It is not only about China. It’s about a lot of things within the country,” he said.

Dr Mahathir expressed particular concern about financing arrangements for such massive infrastructure undertakings in Malaysia such as the East-Coast Railway Link (ECRL), which he said may place undue burden on public coffers in the country.

Dr Mahathir pointed out that a responsible government must try and reduce its debt to other nations.