Malay right-wing group Perkasa today urged the government to explain the financing of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, which has an estimated cost of RM55 billion.

Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali said an academic study in Singapore has concluded that the ECRL project is not funded by China foreign direct investment (FDI), though it was reported that the contract had been awarded to China Communication Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).

"Instead, this RM55 billion fund for the ECRL project is a '20-year scheduled loan obtained from Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China," he said in a statement today.

Ibrahim said the study also revealed that China's role in the ECRL project is not as a foreign direct investor, but as a contractor and financier who thinks of this project as an export of service from China to Malaysia...