Malaysia, Singapore Agree to Delay High-speed Rail Link

• Proeksa Meas
• 6 November 2018
• Uncategorized
• 2731 Views

The governments of Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to defer the planned US$27bn high speed rail link between the countries’ capitals.

The “amicable agreement” reached without Malaysia needing to pay compensation comes after recently-elected Malaysian PM Mahathir unilaterally cancelled major infrastructure projects agreed to by his predecessor, including those planned by the Chinese-government citing its inability to pay.

Singapore has already spent some US$180m on the project and in agreeing to defer the project, expects it to be restarted when the Malaysian economy continues.

“After several discussions, the Singapore government has agreed to accept the views of the Malaysian government to defer the project for a period where we are confident that the Malaysian economy would improve by then,” said Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali according to Business Insider Singapore.

The high-speed direct line would reduce the current 7-hour indirect journey to just 90 minutes.