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PAHANG: The impact of the rail link is suspended from Malaysia (ECRL) being renegotiated with China, as well as two other pipeline projects, are being felt on the ground.
Three weeks after the project's prime contractor, the China Communications and Construction Company (CCCC), a state-owned company, received a stop work order from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance for reasons of National interest on July 3, all work was interrupted.
Nearly half of its 2,250 employees were fired, according to FCCC sources, because they do not know when or if the suspension will be lifted.
Those who were fired were mainly locals. Only 30 percent of the workforce is foreign, the company said.
Some Chinese expatriates – including engineers, administrative staff and chiefs – and their families returned home after a long leave. Others, including several local employees, were still holding their posts when Channel NewsAsia visited the ECRL base camp in Bentong, Pahang.
It is one of the eight largest camps located along the 688 km line connecting the South China Sea. east of the Strait of Malacca, west of Peninsular Malaysia.
The preparatory work was completed in March, according to Malaysia Rail Link, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, a CCCC partner for the project.
Blasting work began in seven of the 43 tunnels, with the longest stretch – the 16 km Genting Tunnel – pending the scheduled arrival of two dual bore machines, known as TBM. , in November.
Staff of China Communications and Construction Company. (Photo: Melissa Goh)
Security officer Nadillah Arriffin and junior engineer Daniel Mohd Hasnan said they were lucky to have kept their jobs after seeing members of their team sacked at during the last weeks.
"I was shocked by the suspension, I worked here for almost a year and I hope to find my team," said Nadillah, who discovered through the social networks that the project had been suspended indefinitely, pending review and renegotiations with China.
who had three months of training in railway engineering as part of a professional training program with Beijing University, only started to work a month ago.He is thinking about his future with the company after some of his friends were dropped.
"It's really sad actually . We achieved our goals and we did well. I hope I do not get the HR letter, "he said, the program was suspended following the stop work order.
This is a game of waiting for the rest of CCCC staff and hundreds
CCCC executives who declined to be named told Channel NewsAsia that they had not been informed of the reasons for the suspension.
They only discovered in the media that the current government, led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said the project, estimated at RM 81 billion ($ 20 billion), was too expensive and needed to be renegotiated.
The final cost, according to the Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng, is This amount is higher than the original cost of 55 billion RM after the addition of extension, double tracking and cost land acquisition, including interest on loans during construction.
ECRL was signed with CCCC in November 2016.
by 20 24, the project was 85% funded by China Exim Bank, and the remaining 15% by Sukuk insurance or by bonds Islamic.
Up to now, 15% of the project has been completed and almost 20% of the loan has been pulled down.
Industry sources told Channel NewsAsia that the entire project, which includes more than 100 viaducts and 43 tunnels, will need to be drastically reduced.
The terms and amount of loans granted to China will also need to be reworked because Dr. Mahathir said that the government did not need such a large loan from China.
million. Lim refused to comment on the retrenchment. The ECRL project will only be feasible if there is a significant cost reduction, he said, without going into details.
Meanwhile, former Finance Minister Suede Zainuddin, who was in Beijing earlier this week, has returned to Malaysia. He was in China to discuss suspended projects with China, among others. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to visit Malaysia over the next two weeks to officially invite Dr. Mahathir to Beijing, tentatively scheduled for mid-August
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