Malaysia fluid on water price talks with S'pore
Malaysia fluid on water price talks with S'pore
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia on Monday said it was ready to rework the pricing
formula for water after an earlier proposal to make Singaporeans
pay 100 times more within a few years was rejected.
Ministers from the two neighbors will begin a second round of
talks next month, after showing, and rejecting each other's
proposals last week.
Singapore initially suggested it pay 30 Malaysian cents for
every thousand gallons. That would be 10 times more than the
present price. It later upped that offer to 45 cents.
The Malaysian state of Johor, at the tip of the peninsular and
just across the causeway from the prosperous island city state,
has sold Singapore water for three cents per thousand gallons for
about the last 40 years. The water agreements pre-date
Singapore's withdrawal in 1965 from the Malaysian Federation.
In negotiations earlier this year, Malaysia asked Singapore to
pay three ringgit for every thousand gallons by 2007 and wanted a
new formula to determine the price thereafter. There are 100
cents to a ringgit.
But Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Akbar said that
proposal was no longer being pushed.
"It no longer applies because we have to rework," he told
reporters at a maritime conference on Monday.
Diplomats said both sides are still far apart and negotiations
could take time given the complexities.
Malaysia wants to settle the water issue first before trying
to settle a series of other disputes. Singapore, which depends on
Malaysia for about half of its water, wants to settle everything
at once.
Other problems dividing the two include: plans for a bridge,
ownership of Malaysian railway land on Singapore, air corridors
for Singapore's air force, and restrictions on Malaysians working
in Singapore cashing in savings and taking the money home.
Meanwhile, Singapore expects no change in relations with
neighboring Malaysia when veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad steps
down next year, acting Foreign Minister Lee Yock Suan said
Monday.
"We see no reason for any significant change in bilateral
relations either immediately or in the long-term," Lee said in
parliament.
He described Malaysian Deputy Premier Abduallah Badawi, who
will succeed Mahathir in October 2003, as "well known" to
Singapore, and added: "The fundamentals of Singapore-Malaysia
relations are not dependent on personalities.
"As close neighbors, we will work with whoever is in charge."
The two Southeast Asian countries have had a prickly
relationship ever since Singapore was kicked out of the Malaysian
Federation in 1965, exasperated by Malaysia's drive to replace
Singapore as the regional business hub.
One of the major issues to be resolved is a formula to
determine a mutually agreeable method to calculate the price
Singapore will pay for importing water from Malaysia.