The Malaysian Insight

THE inconsistent announcements and delays relating to Bandar Malaysia’s search for a new master developer only show that the project has yet to find the right candidate, said a DAP lawmaker.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said it had been four months since a new request for proposal was announced, but the government had failed to provide updates on the matter.

“All we have from the media and parliamentary responses is that, there are six to eight companies that are, perhaps, interested in the project.

“Bandar Malaysia is not any closer to finding a new ‘suitor’ than when it terminated the failed agreement with the consortium led by Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH).

“The so-called ‘interested parties’ were either not that interested or were unwilling to offer anything close to the Finance Ministry’s overpriced valuation of Bandar Malaysia,” he said in a press conference at Parliament today.

In May, the ministry cancelled the contract to develop Bandar Malaysia awarded in 2015 to the Sino-Malaysia joint venture between IWH and China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC).

The ministry said the consortium had failed to meet payment obligations despite repeated extensions.

In 2015, the IWH-CREC consortium acquired a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia for RM7.41 billion.

Pua said the recent parliamentary reply by MoF on the the matter showed that all was not going as planned with the rebidding process of Bandar Malaysia.

“In the finance minister’s answer to my question, he only stated information which were already made known to the press for months. He said that the RFP process had been completed and listed out the same criteria that had been said before.

“He added that 8 companies had met these criteria and that a final decision will be announced soon,” he said, referring to the Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also the finance minister.

Pua had asked the MoF for an update on the progress of searching a new master developer for Bandar Malaysia.

Bandar Malaysia is among a slew of projects being done with China, with others including the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) and several port projects.

The Malaysian government is expected to award the master ‎developer later this year and all agreements will likely be signed before the general election, due by mid-2018.

“The MoF should stop daydreaming and start getting real. The previous Bandar Malaysia ‘open tender’ resulted only with the IWH-consortium winning the bid but failing to secure the necessary financing for the valuation to complete the transaction.

“It raises question on why would any global company in the right mind, offer anything more for Bandar Malaysia especially when they also know that MoF is rather desperate to make the sale?,” he said. – November 14, 2017.