KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia is expected to make an announcement related to the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a senior government official said Wednesday.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the Malaysian government is still in discussion with U.S. company Ocean Infinity on the search for the missing aircraft.

"I am going to make an announcement next week after we finalize the contract with them," he told reporters.

The Malaysian government has been in negotiation with Ocean Infinity to resume search operations on a "no find, no pay" basis. Reports emerged this week that a high-tech research vessel chartered by Ocean Infinity had set sale to the search area in the Southern Indian Ocean.

MH370, carrying 239 on board, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The governments of Malaysia, Australia and China suspended the search operation in January 2017 after almost three years' efforts in a 120,000-square-km area in the Southern Indian Ocean failed to find any sign of the wreckage of the plane. But a report from the Australian Transport Safety Board released later in the year pointed to a new search area where the aircraft could be found.