Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

"Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin," Transport Minister Anthony Loke told a press conference. "We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families."

Loke said the proposal to resume the search in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.

A contract would be signed to cover an 18-month period and the firm would receive 70 million USD if wreckage found was substantive, he said.

Loke said Malaysia had assessed new data on the possible location from multiple experts and Ocean Infinity was confident about the chances of locating the wreckage.