Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the highly-anticipated Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project has been cleansed from the taint of the multi-billion dollar 1MDB corruption scandal, reported The Sun Daily.
“TRX has been detoxified. It has now been cleaned up and is moving forward as a world-class international project. This should be a signal to investors coming here – rest assured that your investments are protected by the rule of law.”
“We are slowly but surely exorcising the ghosts of 1MDB, which have tainted Malaysia as the destination for business and investment,” he said during the unveiling of The Exchange TRX on Wednesday (13 Feb).
He insisted that all government investments, like the RM40 billion TRX project, should pass through stringent due diligence in line with best international practices and in accordance with principle of accountability, competency and transparency.
During the launch, the authorities also signed development facility for The Exchange TRX, which secured RM2.15 billion in funding payable in five years from a group of banks – HSBC, Standard Chartered, Malayan Banking and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
Spanning 17 acres within the 70-acre TRX project, The Exchange TRX was previously known as the Lifestyle Quarter. It is being undertaken by the Finance Ministry’s fully-owned unit TRX City Sdn Bhd and Australian developer Lendlease, which respectively owns 40 percent and 60 percent of the project.
The Exchange TRX will consists of a 10-acre city park, a hotel, Grade A offices, residential units, leisure attractions and a mall. The shopping centre is anticipated to be ready by 2021, while the offices and hotel are expected to be completed by 2022. As for the residential units, construction is slated to begin later this year and is expected to take four years to complete.
The Exchange TRX has a gross development value (GDV) of around RM9 billion. Lendlease is investing RM2.1 billion, while the Finance Ministry provided the land valued at RM1.2 billion.
Lendlease CEO for Asia Tony Lombardo said the Finance Ministry has “detoxified” the project from the 1MDB scandal, while the Aussie developer has carried out its own due diligence.
“Landlease deals with governments around the world, so corporate governance and driving that global standard around governance is so crucial to us. What you’re seeing is the confidence of international investors which believe in this project,” he added.
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