High-speed rail MoU to be inked by mid-year

KUALA LUMPUR: The governments of Malaysia and Singapore will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the high-speed rail (HSR) by mid-2016, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
“We expect to sign the MoU in the middle of this year with Singapore,” he said in his keynote address at Invest Malaysia 2016 yesterday.
Najib said the HSR, linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, is one of the development projects under the 11th Malaysia Plan that remain unaffected by the reduction in government expenditure.
“The HSR link to Singapore, the Pan Borneo Highway, the MRT and LRT, the Pengerang development in Johor – they’re all still going ahead. We need them. They are not grandiose mega projects for show and vanity, as favoured by some. No, these are a part of our future,” he said.
Najib said the government’s economic plan has worked and is still working, and urged local investors to join foreign investors who have already bought RM5.5 billion worth of domestic stocks in the first quarter of 2016.
Meanwhile, the number of companies participating in Bursa Malaysia’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Index has grown to 34, a 42% increase from 2015.
Najib said Bursa Malaysia has been working with FTSE Russell to develop a similar index for Asean since the launch of the ESG Index, also known as FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index, 16 months ago.
“Today, I can also share with you the rolling out of the FTSE4Good Asean 5 Index, or the Asean ESG Index, which will mean that companies listed on the exchanges of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam which meet the ESG standards will be eligible for inclusion,” he said.
In addition, Malaysia will continue to develop new financial assets, such as carbon credit-based solutions along the principles of Islamic finance.
“These assets are sustainable and reward-generating to investors, underpinned by real economic activities; they are end-to-end syariah-compliant, and can be sold to the world’s carbon buyers,” said Najib.
He said the government will consider providing incentives to companies that offset their carbon footprint with Malaysian rainforest credit.