This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 12, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister of Economic Affairs Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali has confirmed that he is one of four ministers in a committee set up by the cabinet to revisit the contract to construct the underground portion of the mass rapid transit Line 2 (MRT2).

Mohamed Azmin said the committee will re-examine the contract with a view to reducing its cost.

“That was the cabinet’s decision. I would like to reiterate that while we recognise that the country is in debt, the government is still focused on sustainable economic growth.

“We will not stop all the [infrastructure] projects because that will have a [negative] impact on the growth of our domestic economy,” he told reporters on the sidelines of South China Morning Post’s China Conference yesterday.

“So in this context, we will re-examine the project to reduce its costs. We will look into it, but the need [for the project] is still there,” he added.

On Sunday, the government announced the termination of the contract, which had been awarded to MMC Gamuda KVMRT (T) Sdn Bhd, a joint-venture between Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp Bhd.

This came about after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on reducing the cost of the contract.

MMC Gamuda is reported to have agreed to a cost reduction of RM2.13 billion to the contract value of RM16.71 billion. The finance ministry, however, was seeking to cut the cost by between RM4.19 billion and RM5.79 billion as advised by an independent consulting engineer.

Mohamed Azmin said the committee will start re-examining the contract soon “because we don’t intend to hold up the project” and want to make a decision “as soon as possible”.

He also gave an assurance that the discussions will take into consideration the government’s desire to protect the workers of the project. “We do not want anyone [involved in the project] to lose their jobs,” he said.

The Edge Financial Daily yesterday reported that the four-minister committee will include Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Works Minister Baru Bian and Transport Minister Anthony Loke.