Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SRI PERDANA, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 29/05/96
Tajuk/Title : THE OCCASION OF THE VISIT OF THE
PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND
It gives me great pleasure to welcome Your
Excellency and members of your delegation to
Malaysia. Your visit is indeed significant as this
is your first to Malaysia, since assuming the Prime
Ministership seven months ago. This is our second
meeting this year. I value the occasion for meeting
and exchanging views with Your Excellency. I hope
that the goodwill and understanding reinforced by
our regular meetings will make the relations between
our two nations more dynamic and substantial. Your
presence and the presence of several of your Cabinet
colleagues, together with important private sector
personalities, symbolise our mutual desire to
strengthen further the traditionally close and
special relations that exist between Malaysia and
Thailand. I look forward to exploring new avenues
during our bilateral consultations tomorrow in order
to enhance bilateral ties.
2. Malaysia and Thailand are close friends and
neighbours in the ASEAN family. Our relations have
over the years progressed amicably. The broad
cooperation under the purview of the Joint
Commission and the General Border Committee are
proceeding well. In many instances they manifest the
confidence and trust Malaysia and Thailand place in
each other. People to people contact is also
substantial. Every year close to a million
Malaysians visit Thailand and about half that number
of Thais visit Malaysia. The rapid construction of
new communications network throughout Malaysia and
Thailand will certainly facilitate greater travel
and contact between our two countries and create new
growth areas. Malaysia also welcomes Thailand's
initiative to forge land communication links between
herself and the countries of Indo-China. This will
bring the region closer together as they will enable
Malaysia to gain access to these countries also.
3. I see similar motivation when Thailand agreed
with Malaysia to promote the idea of a growth
triangle involving Northwest Peninsular Malaysia,
Southern Thailand and Northern Sumatra. The idea of
exploiting our respective comparative advantages to
develop a common growth area was not only
economically logical but politically desirable as
well. Socio-economic developments of our less
developed regions would help to balance the growth
of our respective countries and bring these areas
into the national economic and political mainstream.
And by encouraging the private sector to lead in the
development of the IMT-GT, we are planting the seeds
of real cooperation between our private sectors, to
prepare them for bigger things when the ASEAN Free
Trade Area is fully realised. In this connection, I
am happy to note that Thais and Malaysian companies
together with the Indonesians are actively
discussing a "Land Bridge" that will alleviate
traffic congestion in the Straits of Malacca and
create new centres of growth in Southern Thailand
and Northern Peninsular Malaysia and North Sumatra.
Its advantages for our countries are obvious and I
am confident that our Governments will give it the
support it deserves. I am also encouraged by the
fact that in the overlapping continental shelf area,
we have turned a potential conflict into a source of
opportunity by creating the joint development
authority to jointly exploit and equitably share the
benefits of non-living resources of the areas. We
will soon reap the fruits of the vision of past
leaders.
4. The weakness in our bilateral relations is in
the area of direct investments. Despite the
incremental expansion in bilateral trade, Thai
direct investments in Malaysia in 1995 amounted to
only RM552 million (5.4 billion Baht). The bulk of
Thai investments is in the rubber products industry,
food manufacturing and textile products industry.
Together, these three industries account for over 85
percent of all Thai investments in Malaysia.
Likewise, Malaysian investments in Thailand have
been equally unimpressive. I believe that more can
be done to upgrade this particular sector. In this
context, I am very pleased that Your Excellency has
included prominent Thai businessmen in your
delegation. I hope they will utilise the visit to
explore with their Malaysian counterparts new
investment and joint venture opportunities either in
the domestic market or in third countries,
particularly in the manufacturing, transportation,
utilities and communication sectors.
5. I am deeply convinced that the depth of mutual
understanding and trust between our two nations has
significantly contributed to the overall atmosphere
of peace and cooperation in the region. Indeed, in
the case of ASEAN the sum of its parts truly
constitutes the better whole. I recalled with
pleasure the Fifth ASEAN Summit that was held in
December last year in Bangkok which has manifested
the maturity and confidence of the Association.
ASEAN has now become a forum capable of sustained
cohesiveness upon which political, security,
economic and functional cooperation issues have been
and continue to be effectively addressed and
managed. We would in the years ahead see ASEAN
focus more sharply on forging quality development
and prosperity for its member states, whilst
enhancing ASEAN's role in international economic
affairs through the ASEAN Regional Forum. The
Bangkok Summit was truly momentous as it set in
train the eventual incorporation of all the
countries in Southeast Asia as ASEAN members,
fulfilling the dream of the organisation's founders
for a truly united Southeast Asia. We in Malaysia
placed great value on this unity for, individually,
we have minimal ability to influence developments
which can have repercussion in our countries.
6. ASEAN also has on its agenda the EAEC, a forum
not directed against anyone. Rather the EAEC would
provide the opportunity for the expanding economies
of East Asia to discuss economic matters of common
concerns to them. An East Asia that is able to
develop orderly with minimal dislocations surely
would be good for everybody. I am therefore
grateful to the Thai Government for being one for
the earliest to see and support the logic of the
EAEC. No doubt ASEAN will continue to be seized
with the proposal until its realisation.
7. No man is an island and the present global
realities point towards the ever increasing global
interdependence. There exists a concentration of
economic dynamism in some parts of the world and
poverty, deprivation and conflicts in other parts.
Regional and international cooperation have become
indispensable to the common good and prosperity of
the international community is to be achieved.
Malaysia and Thailand are relatively small nations
but we have shown the commitment and courage to
participate and contribute positively in the realm
of multilateral cooperation namely in the United
Nations and its numerous agencies. It is through
such participation that Malaysia and Thailand can
play a role towards achieving global peace and
prosperity.
8. I view the regular exchanges of visits between
the leaders and officials of our two countries as
very useful in fostering the extremely close
relationship between our two countries. We need to
continue this practice.
9. We also need to encourage the younger
generation to get to know each other better, to
instil in them the spirit of togetherness that
happily exist between Malaysia and Thailand and
within ASEAN.I look forward to more of these
exchanges.
10. May I take this opportunity to offer my sincere
felicitations, through you, to His Majesty on the
50th Anniversary of his ascension to the throne
which is to be officially celebrated this year.
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