00:00Malaysia will decide in the coming months whether to proceed with a multi-billion dollar
00:05high-speed rail line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
00:09Bloomberg reported that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government is weighing proposals
00:14from a narrowing list of private consortiums.
00:19Transport Minister Lok Siu Fok said in an interview on Wednesday that he hoped that
00:23the Cabinet will decide on the viability of the project by the end of the fourth quarter.
00:29The government has already shortlisted three out of seven consortiums that submitted proposals
00:34after issuing a request for information late last year, Lok said, declining to identify
00:39the companies involved.
00:41Lok said the government's policy is to have a strategic asset like the high-speed rail
00:46given to a group that is at least 51% owned by Malaysian firms.
00:51The rail line, which seeks to cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes from
00:55more than four hours by car, was estimated to cost as much as RM100 billion as a government-funded
01:02project.
01:05Lok said so far, the government is not ruling out assistance for the project, but he said
01:09Putrajaya is not keen on providing a guarantee, as that would add to the country's debt.
01:16Natasha Buzd, FMT News.
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