The Iskandar Waterfront Holdings and China Rail Engineering Corp (IWH-CREC) consortium might be brought back to the Bandar Malaysia project, following Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's visit to Beijing.

"Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang told Najib that China hopes the deal on Bandar Malaysia stays unchanged. Najib may have to take the Chinese wishes into consideration," said a government source in Beijing, reported Star Online.

Putrajaya had inked a deal with IWH-CREC in late 2015, which would see the latter acquiring a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia for RM7.41 billion.

However, Putrajaya unilaterally announced on May 3 that the deal had been canceled. Almost immediately, Najib began touting China's Dalian Wanda group - China's biggest property developer - as a potential suitor for Bandar Malaysia.