KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today panned Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong for unveiling the Intra-Asia Express Cable Project during a live debate over the cabotage policy, describing it as inappropriate.

The former finance minister, Wee’s debate opponent, claimed making the announcement involving entrepreneur Yoshio Sato during a political debate could deter investor confidence.

"Wee announced a major foreign investment during the debate, the ‘Intra-Asia Express Cable Project’ which Sato is currently consulting on and would connect Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Sarawak, peninsular Malaysia, and Singapore,” he said in a statement.

"Such an announcement during a debate and not done through a proper forum with the foreign investor where all approvals are given does not inspire confidence.”

Lim has been pressing Wee to explain several controversial points raised during the debate, piling the pressure on the minister after his party colleague and Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming claimed the MCA leader had distorted facts about an undersea internet cable project.

Among them was an allegation that the firm proposing the Intra-Asia Express Cable Project is linked to a company that is benefiting from the cabotage on foreign undersea cable repair ships.

Wee told the live debate that Malaysia may be part of the newly planned network configuration under the Intra-Asia Express Cable project, which would see Malaysia participate in the construction of subsea cables connecting Japan and the Philippines.

He suggested the project was spearheaded by the Japanese telecommunications giant, NTT, which Ong later dismissed as untrue.

The firm behind the project is Orient Link Pte Ltd, of which Sato is the chief executive. 

It is reportedly Singapore-registered company "led” by the NTT Group and established with partners of Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc and WEN Capital Pte Ltd

One of WEN Capital’s directors is Lim Soon Foo, Guan Eng noted citing a press statement by the Japan ICT Fund or JICT dated Dec 13, 2019.

Soon Foo is the executive chairman of the OMS Group, the only company in Malaysia that claims to have undersea cable submarine repair capabilities, making it the largest beneficiary of the cabotage policy which Wee reinstated when he became transport minister.

He is also one of Orient Link’s shareholders.