THE successful renegotiation of the deal with China to construct the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is a big win for  Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and sets Malaysia apart from other nations dealing with the Asian superpower, says a US economist.

LIU Post Economics Department chairman Panos Mourdoukoutas, in an opinion piece for Forbes, said Malaysia had dared to do something Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Philippines dared not – get Beijing back to the negotiating table to reduce the cost of investment projects assigned to Chinese contractors.

He said Dr Mahathir has made good on his election campaign promise to re-negotiate China’s investments in the country which were tilted in Beijing’s favour.

“The ECRL is one of the dozens of China’s infrastructure projects around the world – a bid to write the next chapter of globalisation and advance Beijing’s geopolitical agenda,” he said.

He said the problem is that many of China’s infrastructure projects aren’t economically viable as they are built at inflated costs and leave the host countries heavily indebted to Beijing.

“It’s this debt trap that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been trying to avoid,” he said.

He said the prime minister had cancelled the project in August, forcing China to go back to the negotiating table.

“And he is winning, as evidenced by the new deal, which has cut the cost of the project substantially,” he said.

Last week, special adviser to the government Daim Zainuddin announced that the ECRL project would resume at the reduced cost of RM44 billion,  RM21.5 billion less that the original projection of RM65.5 billion.

The former finance minister, who led the negotiations with China, said the outcome was achieved after nine months of complex and challenging negotiations with the Asian superpower. – Bernama, April 15, 2019.