This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 8, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is hopeful that talks on reducing the price of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project will be carried out before Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to China next month.

“The prime minister has mentioned that because of the inflated price or the high price of the ECRL, we cannot afford this project, but the Chinese government has offered a reduction [in the price].

“We are still in discussions with them and we hope that these discussions will be carried out quickly... hopefully in time before the prime minister’s visit to China by the end of April,” he told reporters after launching the Industry Digitalisation Transformation Fund yesterday.

Guan Eng said the reduction in price was crucial for the ECRL project to proceed.

“We have to come out with some sort of conclusion. [Thus], with the reduction, there is hope that this project can move forward and we are hopeful of a positive outcome from this discussion,” he added.

The ECRL project was initially priced at RM55 billion but Dr Mahathir has said that the project could be carried out at a much lower cost of RM35 billion.

The government has already paid RM200 million in interest to the main contractor of the project, China Communications Construction Co, based on the RM55 billion loan amount.