Malaysia has said it would consider resuming the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 if interested companies came forward with viable proposals or credible leads.

The country's Transport Minister made the statement as the families of passengers mourned the fifth anniversary of aircraft's disappearance.

Key points: Malaysia is prepared to reward firms searching for MH370 if they locate the aircraft

Malaysia is prepared to reward firms searching for MH370 if they locate the aircraft US exploration firm Ocean Infinity ended its search in May last year

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity ended its search in May last year Two of three pieces of debris confirmed as belonging to MH370 went on display at a public memorial

Flight MH370 became the world's greatest aviation mystery when it vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Six Australians, two couples from Queensland and a couple from New South Wales, were among the 239 people on board.

Malaysia and China as well as Australia called off a two-year, $200 million underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean in January 2017 after finding no trace of the aircraft.

A second three-month search, led by US exploration firm Ocean Infinity, ended similarly in May last year.

Malaysia was prepared to reward firms searching for MH370, but only if they located the aircraft, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said.

The Malaysian Government had offered Ocean Infinity up to $70 million under such an agreement for its 2018 search.

Ocean Infinity flags new technology

More than 30 pieces of debris, believed to be part of the MH370 plane, have washed up along the Indian Ocean coastline. ( AP: Vincent Thian )

"If there are any credible leads or specific proposals.... we are more than willing to look at them and we are prepared to discuss with them the new proposals," Mr Loke told reporters at a memorial event in Kuala Lumpur.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said in a video shown at the public remembrance that the company hoped to resume the hunt with better technology it had obtained in the past year.

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

But Mr Loke said the company had not yet put forward a fresh proposal.

"If they can convince us that the new technology can be more efficient in terms of the search, then we are more than willing to restart," Mr Loke said.

A spokesman for Ocean Infinity did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

More than 30 pieces of debris, believed to be part of the MH370 plane, have washed up along the Indian Ocean coastline, but only three have been confirmed to be from the aircraft.

Two of those fragments went on display for the first time at Sunday's event.

Families of those aboard the plane hoped displaying the debris would help the public understand their loss and spur efforts to continue searching for the aircraft, according to Grace Nathan, a lawyer whose mother Anne Daisy was an MH370 passenger.

"To think of it, I can't believe this little piece of the plane travelled thousands and thousands of kilometres through the ocean to Africa over the span of two years," she said. "And I can't help but wonder, where is my mother?"

Sorry, this video has expired Grace Nathan is a Malaysian lawyer whose mother was on the missing flight MH370 ( Beverley O'Connor )

ABC/wires