DRAWING on Malaysia’s experience in the controversial East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) project, Dr Mahathir Mohamad will make a special call for transparency on China’s world-spanning mega-projects initiative at an important world summit this week in Beijing.

The prime minister will deliver the special message at the Belt and Road Forum (BRF), said International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking.

The forum is on projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has seen China build multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects in mostly Third-World Asian countries. 

Touted as one of the largest international summits this year, the heads and representative of 150 countries will be present.

BRI projects are meant to revive ancient Chinese trade routes, such as the Silk Road and to build new commercial and political links as part of its rise as a global superpower.

Some of these projects, however, such as a US$1.3 billion (RM5.5 billion) port in Sri Lanka and bridges in the Maldives, have been criticised for being debt traps due to their lopsided deals.

In Malaysia, BRI projects and Chinese-funded ventures signed under the former scandal-tainted Barisan Nasional administration have been met with intense scepticism due to their secretive and opaque conditions.

In the run-up to the 14th general election, Dr Mahatir and Pakatan Harapan promised to review all such projects in Malaysia if they were voted into power.

Dr Mahathir’s administration has had to deal with accusations, mostly from members of the former Najib Razak regime, that it was anti-China after it started a review of the ECRL and cancelled a gas pipeline in Sabah.

Later, PH discovered that the ECRL’s price tag was inflated to RM60 billion and the contract contained “strange” conditions.

After almost a year of negotiation, PH managed to bring the price tag down to RM44 billion from RM65.5 billion and the project’s developers agreed to increase the participation of local contractors and suppliers from 30% to 40%.

“We are never against the BRI, we were only against the abuse by some people of projects under BRI and PM was consistent,” Leiking said ahead of the BRF that is expected to start on Friday.

Besides shaving off RM21 billion, the review of the BRI’s new alignment means it will now benefit five states, instead of the previous four.

Leiking said Dr Mahathir’s address at the forum will touch on the issue of transparency and hinted that it could raise eyebrows.

“The PM’s will address (this issue), he will come out to the stage and the exciting thing about him is that he will say his piece and he will sometimes shock and disrupt the world. Most of the time although it is shocking and disrupting to some, they will respect his ideas.”

The government’s success in renegotiating a BRI project has won it praise from international observers who said it could be a “case study” on how other countries can approach their own China-backed ventures. – April 22, 2019.