Malaysian PM says MSC to proceed

Malaysian PM says MSC to proceed

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia will push ahead with an ambitious hi-tech multimedia zone despite the shelving of several other major projects, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday.

"There will be no delay, although some people will want us to delay," Mahathir said while opening a conference to showcase his Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) pet project.

The MSC, a 15-by-50-kilometer hi-tech, high-speed communications zone will extend south from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur to its new international airport. It will include an "intelligent" city Cyberjaya and a new "wired" federal capital, Putrajaya.

The construction of Putrajaya itself will only go as far as the first phase, the government announced last week.