“It is not cancelled until and unless we can’t settle on the numbers,” Saifuddin said. “China understands our constraint and they’re willing to scale down the size of the project and the cost. The discussion is probably in the last mile.”
(Feb 19): Malaysia is making progress in talks with China to revive a high-speed rail project that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s government said it would cancel, according to Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
China is willing to reduce the US$20 billion price tag for the East Coast Rail Link project and talks are “in the last mile,” Saifuddin said in an interview Tuesday at his office near Kuala Lumpur. Discussions have been led by Tun Daim Zainuddin, an adviser to Dr Mahathir, with the aim of reaching a smaller project size and cost, he said.
