Japanese, Malaysian Firms Express Interest In Malaysia Incinerator Project

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, Nov 7 (Bernama) -- Japanese and Malaysian companies have expressed interest to participate in the proposed major incinerator project in Malaysia, says Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan. "The tender will probably open by this year. But there will be a few stages. Firstly, the pre-qualification based on certain requirements, and before the end of this year, there will be a tender call for pre-qualification. "Then they will come out with the concept and later on the commercial aspects," he told Bernama in an interview here Wednesday. Abdul Rahman is on his first working visit to the republic. Also present was Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Husni Zai Yaacob. With Singapore's experience in managing incinerators, the minister said learning from the republic's expertise is part of his visit here. "We hope to learn how they manage incinerators as far as the public is concerned. "In Malaysia we have small ones, but naturally when we want to have a big one in the middle of the city it creates a lot of public anxiety. "The technology is actually very mature, but handling and shaping public opinion is something that I want to know about and they (Singapore) have been quite successful with that," he said. On another note, Abdul Rahman advised international companies keen in the incinerator project to consider a joint venture with Malaysian partners should they wish to qualify for the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme for electricity produced from the incinerator. "This is because in order for them to qualify for the FiT scheme from the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA Malaysia), there must be at least 51 per cent Malaysian equity in the company," he added. -- BERNAMA