Scrap turnkey project, initiate equal partnership for China and Malaysia to have a collaboration of joint-venture to achieve win-win , says Prof Cha Daojiong from International Relations Faculty, Beijing University.

Cha said this during an interview with Sin Chew Daily on “South-South collaboration in new era of Asia “, a forum organised by University of Malaya on Tuesday.

The Pakatan Harapan government has announced temporary stop on East Coast Rail Link and the gas pipeline project.

He said these projects which were ordered to stop seem to be carried out with turnkey mode indicating that both countries are unable to have actual linkage.

He said the model of turnkey project has its limitations as China relocates its technology and staff over in Malaysia, offer loan to Malaysia and the entire project is carried out based on the standard of Chinese. Participation from Malaysia side is minimal.

He is of the view that Malaysia may be able to tell China clearly its focu  instead of letting China does on its own.

“When both parties carry out the project together, this will avoid disputes and the entire project would be more transparent.”

He said if Malaysia were to fund the project and participate in daily management, Malaysia would be able to avoid developments which clash with its local sentiment. 

For turnkey project, he said, especially for rail project, by fencing up the construction site, these workers from China are like working in China. Their level is not upgraded to international standard. 

“The Chinese workers do not need to deal with locals. Even chefs come from China. To us, we do not have any advantage”

He said under the turnkey project model, one party completes the project and deliver to the other party. This is not a good practice.

China set up Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development in 2016 offering degree and non-degree training programmes to non-Chinese applications from developing countries. 

Prof Cha said whether Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand, more discussions centre on how China lower loan interest rates  or how much is Japan’s interest rates and when to repay the loan. More importantly these countries need to develop its capability in building its industry and this involves investment in education.

He said two collaborative models – turnkey or making request to learn involve the concept of “feed one with fish, why not teach him how to fish.”

Cha said on collaboration in building railroads, China may set up a rail academy in Malaysia to train the locals who are willing to learn how to maintain rail roads or send them to undergo training in China.

Through such method, he said Malaysians would learn how to maintain railroads. When it has its own rail engineer, it would be able to maintain rail road and bid for rail projects in other countries.

“To Malaysians, if the rail road is built by China, Japan, Germany or South Korea, locals would not know how to build the rail road.”

As the Pakatan Harapan government ordered the projects to temporarily stop, China may see it as a strategy in order to suppress its price quoted.

“It may not be the case. All parties would need to communicate.”

He said China should also understand why Malaysia holds different views and some of the issues which had not been taken into consideration at initial phase.