KUALA LUMPUR (March 7): Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd (BPMB) is now in the midst of cleaning up its books and getting back on the right track this year, as its newly-appointed chairman Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan highlighted that the bank will start afresh "as soon as possible".

"There are no guarantees, but the guarantee that we will give you is that we will try our very best," said Zaiton, at a press conference after the launch of the Industry Digitalisation Transformation Fund here today.

She noted that moving forward the bank will be looking at the credit standards and credit processes of the company, whereby the bank would have to balance its developmental role, but not at the sacrifice of credentials.

"We believe that the BPMB will soon get a clean bill of health," said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, adding that this will be done under the new leadership of BPMB's newly-appointed chairman Zaiton.

"We need a new person-in-charge [for the bank] and when you want to clean up a bank, I think the right person to do the job is sometimes a lady," Lim said in his keynote speech earlier today.

"We have every confidence in Datuk Zaiton's ability to turn around the bank," said Lim.

This was following BPMB being in the spotlight due to the alleged lax lending practices and giving loans to certain politically connected parties.

The Edge Malaysia weekly reported that some of the notable ones include the bank being a Malaysian Development Financial Institution that had extended financing to Integrated Nautical Resort Sdn Bhd and Garuda Suci Sdn Bhd — two companies linked to Indonesian businessman Tan Sri Peter Sondakh — which built and operate the St Regis Langkawi and Langkawi International Convention Centre.

Additionally, Lim reiterated that the discussions on the reduction in the price for the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) project with the Chinese government is expected to be carried out before Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad's visit to China by end-April this year.

"The Prime Minister had mentioned that because of the inflated price or the high price of the ECRL, we cannot afford this project, but the Chinese government have offered a reduction [in prices].

"We are still in discussion with them and we hope that [these] discussions will be carried out quickly... hopefully in time before the Prime Minister's visit to China by the end of April," said Lim.

He added that the reduction in price for the ECRL project would be necessary in order to come into an agreement for the continuation of the project.

"We have to come out with some sort of conclusion. [Thus], with the reduction, there is hope that this project can move forward and we are hopeful for a positive outcome from this discussion," Lim added.