KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — 1 Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) Bandar Malaysia initiative could very well turn out as successful as Singapore’s Jurong island project, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah claimed today.
Husni invited Malaysians to take a long-term view and imagine the prospects of the Bandar Malaysia project in the future when it becomes part of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore bullet train route.
“This will be a new city centre. We believe it will be the same standard as Singapore’s Jurong.
“Why Jurong? When we decided to have a high-speed rail and it will stop at Jurong, there the land prices have increased and development has intensified,” he said in an interview broadcasted live here.
Husni also cited Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Sri Hartamas as examples when asking Malaysians to imagine Bandar Malaysia’s future, despite also acknowledging that the air force had yet to relocate from the Sungai Besi construction site for the 1MDB project.
In his defence of 1MDB’s projects and asset purchases, Husni also noted that the International Monetary Fund wants to have Malaysia as its partner in expanding Islamic finance, adding this could be beneficial for another of 1MDB’s project Tun Razak Exchange (TRX).
“We already have a niche product, Islamic finance, that we can leverage on when we do TRX. Imagine it becoming a global Islamic finance centre,” he said.
He also claimed that 1MDB had decided to focus on strategic fields like power generation, pointing out that the keen interest shown in the firm’s consolidated power assets proves that it was a viable purchase, adding that the RM6 billion inherited debt would be taken on by the next investor.
Aside from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Auditor-General is also conducting an audit on the accounts of 1MDB, which has reportedly amassed debts of some RM42 billion since it was incorporated in 2009.
1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the decision to turn the Terengganu Investment Authority state fund into a federal agency.
Since then the fund has been dogged by negative publicity over its finances and debts with the most recent being the controversial land deal with Lembaga Tabung Haji.
