Malaysia and Thailand agree to form task forces to boost ties, says PM

The Star

Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to form a number of task forces to boost existing ties, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.  Speaking at a joint press conference with Thailand's Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, after a bilateral meeting on Wednesday (Sept 11), Anwar added that these task forces would focus on tourism, trade, food security, agriculture, and border security issues.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yr23a234  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 With your credentials, particularly in the business sector, I understand your focus and

00:07 also mine, other than the normal security issues, which of course are trade and investments.

00:14 And I'm very pleased that you have given these very pragmatic, business-like decisions, which

00:25 is rare in our normal bilateral relations with countries. And we have set up a number

00:31 of task forces that must complete their work in one month. So I was in the lighter mode

00:38 telling the Thai delegation, good luck, you are facing a very tough Prime Minister. But

00:45 one month is for the agriculture sector, tourism, and the other is for the security sector.

00:54 And of course trade and business, which would include the halal sector. And the Prime Minister

01:01 said that it's very forthcoming and said that hopefully we can increase the trade and investments.

01:16 We complement each other, we help each other as neighbours, and we benefit immensely from

01:23 the experience of both our countries. And hopefully in one month we will meet, after

01:32 the report has been submitted to me and Prime Minister Seta, because we have a lot of multilateral

01:41 meetings. One in Riyadh next week, GCC ASEAN, which Prime Minister Seta will also join.

01:48 And then following that in mid-December in Japan, this is Japan ASEAN commemorative event

01:56 which both of us will meet. And I'm sure, based on his track record and seriousness

02:06 in developing relations in practical terms, we will then compare the notes and make sure

02:13 that we execute it effectively.

02:19 I'm happy to be here and we have had a warm reception from the King and a very fruitful

02:26 discussion here this afternoon. Excellencies has kindly mentioned that the Prime Minister

02:36 said that the way in which we do business going forward between the two countries, since

02:40 we are a very, very close nation, the best of friends for a long time, the taskforce

02:47 scheme is probably the best way to go forward.

02:55 One of the issues that we discussed about was the national security on the north of

03:00 Northern Malaysia and the deep south of Thailand. Those are of very high concern to both governments.

03:07 We agreed to turn the minor war zone into a trade zone. We tried to bring prosperities

03:17 to the people in the deep south and the northern Malaysia that also go in line with the increased

03:25 trade and commerce volume between the two countries.

03:29 We may have enjoyed a decent number of volume of trade, but both Excellencies and I believe

03:36 that in going forward, the number of trade volumes should increase by much more than

03:44 what we have planned to do. The new target will be set and we hope that we can achieve

03:54 aggressive target in the very near future.

03:57 Thank you.

03:59 [End of Audio]

Category

Transcript

Recommended