BENTONG, April 11 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke today said that out of the 17,000-strong labour force for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, 5,000 people (32 per cent) were locals.
In a press conference today, Loke said that despite the project’s engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contractor is China Communications Construction (CCCC) Sdn Bhd — a China-based company it has included local talents to complete the project.
“Out of the 17,000 jobs created for this project, 32 per cent is filled by our own local talents,” he said after visiting the Genting Tunnel construction site earlier today.
Apart from the inclusion of the local workforce, he said that the ECRL project has achieved the milestone of 10 million safe man-hours without any lost-time injury.
“Furthermore, MRL together with CCC-ECRL launched the ‘ECRL Safety and Health Campaign 2023’ with the theme “Beware of Tomorrow” in March 2023.
“This campaign is timely to foster safety awareness as this mega project is progressing rapidly and has over 17,000 workforce and 350 major work sites to date,” he added.
Announced in 2016, the ECRL is the flagship project of China’s Belt-Road Initiative in Malaysia that would link the major ports of the peninsula’s east and west coasts.
Construction began on August 2017 but had been halted following Malaysia’s change of government in 2018 before being resumed in 2019.
