[ad_1]
Mahathir, 92, a veteran of the policy, said that he was also going to drive up high interest rates on Chinese loans used to finance projects.
The previous Malaysian government under Najib had cultivated warm ties with China and signed But critics say that many agreements lacked transparency, fueling suspicion of being hit in exchange for help for repay the debts of a financial scandal that engulfed the 1MDB state fund that ultimately helped bring down Najib.
Mahathir ordered a review of megaprojects signed by Najib during his nine-year term in order to reduce the country's estimated $ 250 billion national debt and other liabilities.
Malaysia announced Thursday the suspension of three of its largest projects backed by China – one involving a rail link and two pipelines – worth more than $ 22 billion.
"I want to go to China as soon as possible, but the President of China is not available in July and I will go there in August," Mahathir said at a conference newspaper held in Putrajaya, administrative capital, near Kuala Lumpur
". "The interest rate applied on loans to Malaysia" is much higher than when governments borrow, "according to Mahathir.
" Normally governments borrow at 3.0 The Minister of Finance, Lim Guan Eng, and Suede Zainuddin, who chairs a high-level economic advisory council from the private sector, also travels to China separately
. Daim said in May that all megaprojects in the country would be reviewed by the council and recommendations made to the government.
The East Coast Rail Link, one of the suspended projects, would link the east coast of Malaysia to southern Thailand and the Ma This $ 20 billion project was entrusted to China Communications Construction Company, the largest corporation in the world. Engineering, and financed mainly by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China
. In May, Mahathir reported plans to build a high-speed rail link between Singapore and Singapore, which amounted to 9.4 billion ringgit ($ 2.32 billion). Malaysia, which had been accepted several years ago, felt that it was too expensive.
Chinese, Japanese and European investors were among those who expressed interest in bidding for the project.
Najib was charged with corruption on Wednesday. supposedly accepting millions of dollars in bribe money, in an astonishing fall of grace a few months after his shock electoral defeat.//AFP
Source link
