Despite its huge expense, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has defended the need for large-scale infrastructure projects saying that they help create jobs.

As an example, he said he is about to visit the MRT project later today, and that project has provided job opportunities for hundreds of young Malaysian engineers who are still in their 20s.

“So when the government launched the MRT project, it is not only to resolve the public transport problem in the Klang Valley, but it is also about providing jobs and opportunities for our graduates.

“This is what important to us when we build the MRT, the Pan Borneo Highway, the Pengerang development and the Iskandar development, and so on. For what? Behind all that is so that we provide job opportunities.

“If we don’t invest in such projects - major infrastructure projects - surely we won’t be able to provide opportunities,” he said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur today.

Najib was speaking to a group of graduates of the government’s Skim Latihan 1Malaysia skills development programme, which is aimed at university graduates who remain unemployed six months after graduation.

The first of three MRT lines are expected to start operations in July 2017 at the cost of RM23 billion, while the second line would commence operations in 2021 at the cost of another RM28 billion.

Opposition parties had long complained that the project is funded through contingent liabilities, which is seen as a way for the government to take on more debts without having it appear in Malaysia’s financial statements.