KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, has been entrusted by the Prime Minister to execute the River of Life (ROL) project.
Abdul Rahman said the 100km ROL project was a game changer, not only as a tourist attraction but also a catalyst for economic development for the Bumiputeras, smallholders and small and medium enterprises, as well as an alternative mode of transportation in the form of water taxis in the Klang Valley.
“I have been instructed by the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) to put urgency (to the project) which has been delayed for eight years and to be implemented as soon as possible,” he told a press conference here, today.
Abdul Rahman earlier delivered the closing address at the one-day 19th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference 2017 today.
“There are some technical issues but I think whatever the issues are, the eight-year delay is way too long,” he said.
He said he had engaged and had been talking to stakeholders and that Kuala Lumpur City Council had been very helpful, as were the companies that had been given the concession contract to undertake the project.
“We are looking at some of the issues, bottlenecks, try to flush out the obstacles, and hopefully will be able to realise it as soon as possible.
“We are doing it in phases and the phase that we are looking at right now is the River City, which is a small portion of the ROL project. Negotiations are ongoing and there’ll be an announcement on the first phase of KL River City soon,” said Abdul Rahman.
On the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) rejection by the US, he said Malaysia fought hard for this and the ruling coalition took political risk of introducing the trade deal as there were a lot of resistance.
“(Minister of International Trade and Industry) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed was very instrumental as it was very hard to convince the people. However, (US President) Donald Trump simply wrote off this initiative and it is regretful,” he said.
Abdul Rahman said the next alternative for the country would be bilateral agreements and regional pacts.
“Of course, we want America to play an important role in this region because they’re the biggest economy in the world,” he said.
Abdul Rahman said Trump was not unfriendly to Asia as he hadn’t made any unfriendly remarks towards Asian countries, and if there were any remarks, it was only economic relationship, not political, between China and the US.
The one-day conference was organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, an independent private think tank to discuss the nation’s strategic economic development. — Bernama
