Sultan Ibrahim to seek
funds for high-speed rail
on China visit
The king is reported to be leading a delegation of industry and high-level officials, including transport minister Loke Siew Fook.
Sultan Ibrahim is looking for investment from a Chinese state-owned company, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. President Xi Jinping, whose belt and road initiative has fuelled an infrastructure boom across Asia and Africa, invited the monarch for a four-day state visit to deepen strategic ties that began Thursday.
Sultan Ibrahim’s delegation includes representatives of YTL Corp, the people said. The company is part of one of the three groups shortlisted for the project, the Edge Malaysia reported in March. YTL executive chairman Francis Yeoh told Bloomberg TV in November last year that it’s interested, while stopping short of confirming its participation in the bidding process.
The king has been a longtime backer of the rail link, which Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government revived last year with a caveat that it won’t be funded by taxpayers. Sultan Ibrahim told the Straits Times in December that a private consortium could fund it and operate it for 30 years to recoup expenses before handing it back to the government.
Istana Negara, China’s foreign ministry and a representative for YTL did not respond to requests for comment. The transport ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement on Sept 18, the foreign affairs ministry said the visit symbolises the robust state of the two countries’ relations. Transport minister Loke Siew Fook is part of the delegation. He told Bloomberg News in July that the cabinet will decide on the project’s viability by the end of this year.
Seven local and international groups comprising 31 firms submitted proposals, MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd, the agency overseeing the project, said in January but did not name them.
The bidders were whittled down to a shortlist of three, the Edge Malaysia said in its report in March. They are a group including the construction arm of YTL, one involving tycoon Vincent Tan’s Berjaya Land Bhd, and a Chinese consortium headed by state-owned China Railway Construction Corp, the newspaper said.
Loke confirmed there’s a shortlist of three in the interview with Bloomberg in July, while declining to name the groups. He said the government’s policy is to have the project led by a consortium that’s at least 51% Malaysian owned.
In the interview with the Straits Times, Sultan Ibrahim said the high-speed rail project should be aligned so that the border crossing is through Forest City, a property development in Johor.
It is operated by a joint venture between troubled Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co and a Malaysian firm owned by Sultan Ibrahim, a Johor state government agency and others.
The rail line — which aims to cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes from more than four hours by car — was projected to cost as much as RM100 billion as a government-funded project.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad postponed the project in 2018, about eight years after it was first proposed, citing high costs. It was formally cancelled in 2021, but Anwar’s administration revived it last year on condition that it was not funded by taxpayers.
For the project to go ahead, Singapore would also need to approve it. Singapore prime minister Lawrence Wong said in June he’s willing to hear fresh proposals on the rail link.
China has been open to Malaysia’s push to develop railway links. During a visit to Malaysia in June, premier Li Qiang said China was willing to back the country on development of major infrastructure.
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