Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would not have replied to Penang's request for a loan from China for the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), if the deal was not beneficial for the state or country, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

Lim said that approval for the loan from the National Finance Council, which is chaired by Najib, would be a "sort of" guarantee to ensure the borrowed amount is repaid, or else Putrajaya would have to come up with the funds.

Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, was commenting on the state's plan to borrow from China-owned Export-Import Bank of China (Exim) to fund the PTMP, under the Penang Loan (Bank and Other Financial Source) Enactment 2017, which was passed unanimously by the state legislative assembly recently...