HYDRO

The Second Finance Minister Mustapa Mohamed has said that the Malaysian government has decided to leave the decision as to whether or not the Bakun hydro project is to be revived to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). “We have put in lots of money in the project. Obviously we can’t leave everything to rot there,” he said. “We have decided for TNB to look at the whole thing and come back to us with some recommendations.” He added that no deadline had been set for TNB to complete the study.

The Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir, said that the Bakun project cost has been much reduced because the government has scrapped its plan to distribute power from Bakun to peninsular Malaysia. This is expected to reduce the cost by RM6 billion from its original cost of RM13.6 billion.