However, on 24 May 2010, Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, after a leaders' retreat in Singapore, announced that the two sides had reached an agreement on outstanding issues concerning the 1990 POA, thus breaking the 20-year-old deadlock.
Railway land at Tanjong Pagar would be handed over to a private limited company for joint development of which its equity would be split 60% to Malaysia and 40% to Singapore.
In exchange three parcels of railway land—at Tanjong Pagar, Kranji, and Woodlands—would be jointly developed on a 60–40 basis with the Malaysian government holding the larger share.
However, three years later, Prime Minister Mahathir expressed his displeasure with the POA as it failed to include a piece of railway land in Bukit Timah for joint development.
Malaysia's subsequent reluctance to go ahead with the 1990 agreement was based on the fear that it might eventually be forced to give up proprietary control over some or all of KTM's land in Singapore.
In 1993, both countries had agreed to move their CIQ facilities in Tanjong Pagar to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint at the northernmost point of the island by 1 August 1998.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore dated 24 July 1998: However, Malaysia refused to have its immigration clearance on the passenger platform.
Under Malaysian law, it is Johor Bahru railway station, not Tanjong Pagar, that is gazetted as an Immigration Control Post for persons travelling by train from Singapore to Malaysia.
Since both parties had agreed to move the CIQ facilities to Woodlands, it was improper of Malaysia to detract from this agreement and continue to operate from Tanjong Pagar without the consent of the Singapore government.
Both governments have reached an understanding on the Malaysian immigration checkpoint on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore railway line, which is to be moved from Tanjong Pagar to Kranji.
The issue over Malayan Railway land—a very sensitive one for Kuala Lumpur—was then thought to be resolved by Singapore's agreement to offer Malaysia another twelve plots of land in Bukit Timah (as mentioned earlier).
[6] On 24 May 2010, Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, after a leaders' retreat in Singapore, announced that the two sides had reached an agreement on outstanding issues concerning the 1990 POA, thus breaking the 20-year-old deadlock.
On 22 June 2010, Lee Hsien Loong visited Malaysia to discuss the land swap issue with Najib Razak.