Malaysia will therefore seek to amend the project or other alternatives, he said"We are negotiating - formally or informally - with them (the Chinese). Before the May 9 general election, the now-ruling Pakatan Harapan alliance led by Dr Mahathir had vowed to terminate the ECRL project as it said the contract and loan terms were unfavourable to Malaysia. The RM81bil ECRL project was approved by Cabinet under then-Premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in October 2016. He said the Cabinet has never discussed the matter and he knew nothing about the statement made by Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar. Dr Xavier said in November Putrajaya would discuss with the Chinese government the status of the Giant Panda Conservation Programme in 2019 over its cost.

Source: The Star January 02, 2019 07:15 UTC