Malaysia's transport minister said on Sunday that the government is open to new proposals from U.S. technology firm Ocean Infinity or any other companies to resume the hunt for Flight 370, as families of passengers marked the fifth anniversary of the jet's mysterious disappearance.

The plane vanished with 239 people on board on March 8 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Confirmed debris that washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean helped to narrow Ocean Infinity's search area, but it failed to uncover any evidence.

Ocean Infinity mounted a  'no cure, no fee' search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean in January 2018 that ended in May without any clue as to where it could have crashed.

But the company's CEO, Oliver Plunkett, said in a video shown at the public remembrance event at a mall near Kuala Lumpur that the company hopes to resume the hunt with better technology obtained in the past year.

The Ocean Infinity mission came a year after an official search by Malaysia, Australia and China ended in futility.

Plunkett said his company has better technology now after successfully locating an Argentinian submarine in November, a year after it went missing.

He said the firm is still reviewing all possible data on Flight 370 and thinking about how it can revive its failed mission.

"We haven't given up hope. We hope we can continue the search in due course," Plunkett said.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said it's been frustrating that the two searches failed to produce any clues and that he "welcomes credible leads and also concrete proposals to resume the search."

He brushed off suggestions of offering rewards to find the plane, but said the government is willing to discuss proposals from any companies prepared to resume the search.

"There must be a proposal from a specific company ... we cannot just be out there without credible leads. That's the most practical thing to do," Loke said.

A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released last July showed lapses in the government's response and raised the possibility of "intervention by a third party."

Investigators, however, said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane's black boxes are found.

The report reiterated Malaysia's assertion that the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications.

But it said there was no evidence of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots that could have lead them to hijack the plane.

All the other passengers were also cleared by police and had no pilot training.

Voice 370, a support group for next-of-kin, expressed hope that the new government that won a general election in May last year will do more to encourage search missions and seek new clues.

The group's spokeswoman, Grace Nathan, urged the government to set aside up to 70 million US dollars — the amount it agreed to pay Ocean Infinity had it found the plane — to encourage exploration companies to take on "no cure, no fee" missions so Flight 370's passengers will not have died in vain.

Kuala Lumpur - 3 March 2019

1. Wing debris on display

2. Damage on wing

3. Wide wing

4. People looking at wing

5. Label on debris reading (English) 'right outboard flap'

6. Debris side view

7. Next of kin candlelight ceremony

8. Next of kin crying at candlelight ceremony

9. Children at candlelight ceremony

10. Attendee filming ceremony on cell phone

11. Candles with names of missing passengers

12. Next of kin lighting candles

13. Children lighting candles

14. Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke at event

15. Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke drinking water

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Anthony Loke, Malaysian Transport Minister:

"If there are any credible leads or any specific proposals, especially from Ocean Infinity, we are more than willing to look at it, and we are prepared to discuss with them the new proposal. Of course, the approach of using  'No fee No cure' if there's no fee.. no result, we are prepared to look at it."

17. T-shirt 'remembering 239 lives'

18. Next of kin K.S Narendran talking to reporter

19. SOUNDBITE (English) K.S Narendran, MH370 next of kin:

"It (the government) must demonstrate its commitment by actively looking for credible evidence that it wants from the rest of the world, and so it must make an effort, and it must be apparent that it's making an effort to find credible evidence."

20. Jaquita Gomes speaking to friends

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Jaquita Gomes, MH370 next of kin:

"Our expectation is for the government to say 'yes, let's start searching again' - that's what we want to happen, because without doing that, you won't find the plane. You can't be sitting down and waiting for something to fall on your lap."

22. Signage 'remembering 239 lives MH370 5 years gone'

23. MH370 tribute board 'MH370 is not the history. It's the future'

24. MH370 tribute board 'come home and see you family'

25. MH370 tribute board