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Not just Forest City: a look at Malaysia’s Chinese-backed projects that have faced uncertainty, controversy
- Under ex-PM Najib Razak’s tenure, Malaysia saw billions of dollars of Chinese mainly belt and road investments, some of which were later axed
- Others have ‘been revitalised’, such as the Melaka Gateway port, Bandar Malaysia railway and the East Coast Rail Link, expected to open in 2027
Reading Time:4 minutes
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The Forest City mega-project in Johor has faced years of scrutiny over project delays, low uptake and controversy. But in the see-sawing fortunes of Chinese investment in Malaysia, it is by no means the only one.
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The country saw billions of dollars of Chinese investments – some pledged, some real – during the tenure of jailed former prime minister Najib Razak, who sought to bolster Malaysia’s flagging fortunes by pulling in foreign funds for major infrastructure projects, chiefly via China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
But several of those projects ended up facing long periods of uncertainty, with some ultimately cancelled, after Najib’s previously undefeated Barisan Nasional coalition suffered a shock loss in a 2018 general election on the back of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal.
Domestic politics aside, the projects also faced stumbling blocks from strict capital controls imposed by Beijing since 2017 and onerous red tape in Malaysia, according to Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Despite the troubles, China remains a key source of investments for Malaysia. Last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim secured nearly 200 billion ringgit (US$43 billion) in pledged investments from Chinese firms covering everything from manufacturing to green technology, energy and the digital economy.
Melaka Gateway
Long before any government intervention, the Melaka Gateway port and special economic zone plan was already riddled with delays. First mooted in 2014, it took a further three years before a deal was struck with the Melaka state government to get the project off the ground.
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