The Bandar Malaysia project has taken the back seat while the government is still chasing after a Fortune 500 company that it said would be given the contract to handle the project.

In June, the then newly appointed chairman of Bandar Malaysia Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah said only top, world-renowned companies would be allowed to bid for the project.

He said this was to ensure that only such world-renowned companies were to develop the project at top-notch standard.

He also said these will be part of the new criteria for the request for proposal (RFP) process to invite companies to be the master developer of Bandar Malaysia.

However, on Dec 12,  Mohd Irwan said Malaysia is still in negotiations for a master developer for its ambitious Bandar Malaysia project.

The Treasury Secretary-General for Malaysia’s Finance Ministry Irwan Serigar told Channel NewsAsia in an interview on Tuesday (Dec 12): “When the time comes I’ll come to the press … because we are still negotiating.”

In June, Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance laid out criteria for its new partner to be an affiliate of a Fortune 500 company “to ensure financial strength”, an affiliate of a company “which has generated cumulatively last three years no less than RM50 billion in revenue from the entire value chain of real estate and associated businesses”, and a company with “experience in international quality real estate development projects”.

Channel News Asia cited opposition MP Tony Pua who had last month alleged that the government was stalling its announcement of a master developer, suggesting it had run into difficulties due to the “astronomical” asking price.

Bywftv