Alibaba Group Malaysia chief representative James Song said as a commercial company, it would be investing a lot in Malaysia, insisting the group paid a lot of attention to Malaysia-China bilateral relations.

“We are very positive about bilateral relations between both countries and at the same time we are very confident in Malaysia’s future.

“We’re fully confident in our project in Malaysia and there is no setback, we are going to continue to invest in Malaysia, we have never changed our commitment to the local people and we will continue to do that,” he said during the Alibaba Group media familiarisation visit here recently.

Song said during Alibaba Group co-founder and executive chairman Jack Ma’s visit to Malaysia recently, he met with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and several ministers, including that of finance and communications.

“What we saw and what we heard proved there is nothing wrong between the two countries. There are also a lot of other companies which are concerned about Malaysia-China bilateral ties but to us there are no negative signs between the two countries,” said Song.

It was earlier reported that Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd had notified China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the contractor for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, to suspend work on the 688.3-km railway project on the grounds of national interest.

The suspension came a day after the finance ministry disclosed that the final cost of the ECRL project was RM81 billion and that CCCC needed to significantly reduce the construction cost to make it financially viable.

The project was approved by the previous government on Oct 21, 2016, while the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning agreement was signed with CCCC on Nov 1, 2016.