Following a general election that saw the first change of governing party in the nation's history, the new administration of Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir has torn up a host of Chinese-backed investment plans, most recently dismissing the $13.5 billion East Coast Rail Link and the $1 billion Trans Sabah Gas Pipeline projects.
That's the landscape into which Firas Raad, the World Bank's new country manager for Malaysia, east Asia and the Pacific. Raad, a Jordanian national, arrived on August 15, after a five-year stint as country manager of Kuwait....