KL hopes to revive debt-ridden plant

KL hopes to revive debt-ridden plant

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
said Monday that the government hopes to revive its debt-ridden
Perwaja Steel which is currently under investigation for alleged
abuse of funds.

"We want to revive Perwaja and the government has decided that
if we can find some ways of privatizing Perwaja to a party that
can manage (we will do so)," he was quoted as saying by the
national Bernama news agency.

Asked if any parties had shown interest in the state-owned
steel maker, Mahathir said: "Yes...there has been some interest
but we have to see that our national interest is maintained."

The Perwaja Terengganu steel plant was planned as a
centerpiece of Malaysia's industrialization drive of the early
1980s but became one of its most spectacular corporate disasters.

It has accumulated losses and liabilities estimated by
industry officials at 10.7 billion ringgit (US$2.8 billion).

The inquiry into the affairs of the massively indebted steel
plant began in 1996 but was hampered when the Anti Corruption
Agency (ACA) failed to get the cooperation of overseas witnesses.

ACA director-general Ahmad Zaki Husin said over the weekend
that the Swiss government has agreed to cooperate and the agency
could now conduct detailed investigations into Perwaja.

The ACA is investigating a 76.4 million ringgit payment made
by Perwaja for what were described as "consultancy fees."

It said the sum was paid to two Japanese working for a
consultancy firm, through the account of a Hong Kong company. The
cash was then transferred to the account in Switzerland of a firm
registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Mahathir said he hoped to see a breakthrough in the ACA's
probe.

"We hope to have a solution and I hope that the information
that we are getting from (the) Swiss (government) can result in
some action," he told reporters at the eastern Sabah state at the
end of a two-day visit.