A CONFIDENTIALITY clause does not allow Putrajaya how much it is compensating Singapore for the cancellation of the transboundary high-speed rail project, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamed.

The minister in charge of economic affairs said Singapore has also yet to state how much it seeks in recompense.

“We are waiting for the terms from Singapore which we will study and confirm when we receive them. These claims are allowed and have been agreed upon.

“But the amount cannot be revealed because under the bilateral agreement, both countries are bound by a secrecy clause,” he said in a Facebook post today.

However, Mustapa said Putrajaya will discuss with Singapore the possibility of making the information public.

Meanwhile, Mustapa said Malaysia is considering building a high-speed train service from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Baru.

He said any talk that such a project would be launched soon was pure speculation at this point.

Former transport minister Anthony Loke has urged Putrajaya to be transparent and disclose how much it is costing to pay off its project partner to terminate the contract to build the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail.

In a statement, Loke said the government must make the monetary details public like the Pakatan Harapan government did when it was negotiating with Singapore over the terms for delaying the HSR and RTS projects.

“The government must be transparent and announce to the people how much must be paid to Singapore, and what is the total spent by the MyHSR company, which has been shouldered by taxpayers since 2016,” he said.

Malaysia and Singapore on January 1 announced they have terminated the contract to build the HSR, which could have linked the two countries, after failing to reach agreement on proposed changes to the project.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Long issued a joint statement announcing the scrapping of the deal upon the expiry of the project suspension period the day before. – January 4, 2021.