Finance minister Lim Guan Eng said that all PPPs pending approval would be delivered under a new PPP model, where the land and the asset would be treated as separate entities.
“The new true PPP model, or what I would term as PPP 2.0 would decouple the land swap by carrying out open auctions for the land to be sold, while at the same time executing an open tender for the project to be built,” Lim said.
Lim added that the new mechanism would tackle corruption, “extraordinary profits to crony companies,” and clarify the real costs of assets and land.
Meanwhile, local press reports quoted the minister as saying that “48 projects under review have been given the green light to proceed,” as part of a speech at the Khazanah Nasional’s Megatrend Forum 2018.
Lim’s comments come just over a month after Malaysia and Singapore formally agreed to postpone the delivery of a high-speed rail link between the two countries, scrapping the ongoing tender procedure.