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.