Its deputy director Eric See-To said both were long-term national-level “icon projects” spanning two decades that would drive economic activities while providing tens of thousands of jobs for Malaysians.
He claimed that the criticism by the DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua that the exemptions were to protect 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) interests showed how malicious the party was and that it was against the country’s interest.
“They would rather see the government’s plans fail so that they have political capital to attack, rather than see our plans becoming a success for the benefit of the people,” See-To said in a statement today.
He said TRX was positioned as a regional financial services centre with many of its structures already in the construction phase, including the 106-floor Signature Tower.
He said corporate giants like HSBC and Prudential had confirmed moves to site their regional headquarters there.
See-To added that Bandar Malaysia would also house the Kuala Lumpur terminus for the High Speed Rail (HSR) from Singapore.
“On the other end of the HSR line at Jurong East, Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Agency (URA) is already planning to develop the area surrounding their HSR station into Singapore’s second central business district (CBD) where they plan to eventually create 10,000 to 20,000 residences,” he said.
“Malaysia plans to do the same around the Bandar Malaysia HSR station so that international travellers who take the train from the Singapore station will also arrive at an impressive development that can rival what Singapore has in plan.
“Why does DAP want to deprive Malaysia of what Singapore is also doing?” he said.
On Sunday, Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani was reported by the New Straits Times as saying that the government had frozen luxury property developments from Nov 1, following a Bank Negara Malaysia report warning that unsold residential properties were at a decade-high.
He said the directive temporarily stopped development of shopping malls, commercial complexes and condominiums valued above RM1 million until the excess supply was cleared.
Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor then said yesterday that the Bandar Malaysia and TRX projects would not be affected. He said they had received approval “in principle” and their developments could not be stopped.
Earlier today, Pua said Bandar Malaysia and TRX were two of 1MDB’s largest assets, and both needed to be developed if the fund hoped to stay afloat.
He hit out at 1MDB, saying it received “special treatment” which discriminated against private businesses.
“If this freeze on high-end developments is to be taken seriously at all, the government has to make sure it is fairly enforced across the board,” Pua said.
See-To questioned why DAP was being such a “pro-developer” party.
“Why is it that DAP also wants to stop 1MDB from clearing its debt and becoming a success?” he said.
“Is DAP fighting for Singapore and private developers or are they fighting for the interest of Malaysia and the rakyat (people),” he added.
Luxury project freeze: Govt only looking out for 1MDB, says Pua