S’pore-KL HSR deal to be inked next week: PM Najib

KUALA LUMPUR — The bilateral agreement on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High-Speed Rail (HSR) link will be signed next week, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, amid calls by the opposition that the signing should be postponed until there is more clarity on the costs and benefits for Malaysians.

Describing the progress of the HSR agreement as “well and good”, Mr Najib said his counterpart, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, had asked for a bit more time.

“We had to delay the signing on the request of the Singapore Government. It was a technical matter,” he told Malaysian reporters after officiating an event in Johor on Tuesday (Dec 6), giving the first confirmation that a retreat between the two leaders originally scheduled for this week has been postponed. 

“Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has called me and asked for a little bit of time to brief their President,” said Mr Najib, adding that under Singapore’s Constitution, the guarantee of such a project would need the approval of the country’s President. 

“We will be signing the agreement next week, I think. He (Mr Lee) is coming to Kuala Lumpur (for an annual leaders’ retreat)”.

Singapore and Malaysia signed a seven-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July that aimed for the HSR services to kick off in 2026. 

The MoU paved the way for a legally binding bilateral agreement at the end of this year.

Earlier, Singapore’s Ministry of Transport (MOT) said that the agreement would be signed this week.

“We are working towards signing the bilateral agreement on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail at the next leaders’ retreat on Dec 5, 2016,” said the ministry on Nov 14.

Both leaders were supposed to witness the signing of the HSR agreement.

But it emerged last week that the retreat could have been postponed, when Mr Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department, said the agreement will be signed by the end of the year, “most likely” around Dec 21.

In response to TODAY’s query last Thursday, a spokesperson for Singapore’s MOT said that there has been “excellent progress” on the negotiations for the agreement.

“Both Malaysia and Singapore are finalising the text, and look forward to its signing at the coming Leaders’ Retreat soon,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan said any signing of agreements on the rail link should be postponed until an in-depth, solid and transparent study is conducted to prove the sustainability of the project.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the opposition bloc’s lawmakers said they want the government to be open about the income that Malaysia will derive from the project and how the cost of construction will be borne by both nations.

“The project involves huge amounts of the country’s finances and a lot of citizens’ land is expected to be taken by the government to construct the HSR,” the statement added. 

“Therefore, the government should not keep information about this project secret, like a Third World country.” 

The HSR will reduce travel time between the two countries to just 90 minutes, with speeds of more than 300kmh. 

Besides Putrajaya, other stations along the route are Bandar Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Seremban (Negeri Sembilan), Ayer Keroh (Malacca), Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Puteri in Johor, as well as Singapore. AGENCIES