Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : LANGKAWI, KEDAH DARUL AMAN
Tarikh/Date : 15/11/97
Tajuk/Title : THE FOURTH ASIA-KYUSHU REGIONAL
EXCHANGE SUMMIT
` SMART PARTNERSHIP IN THE NEXT MILLENNIUM '
1. Let me first of all welcome all of you to
Malaysia and particularly to these legendary islands of
Langkawi. I believe few would like to miss these islands
when visiting Malaysia on holiday. We are glad and
honoured indeed to host this Fourth Asia-Kyushu Regional
Exchange Summit in Langkawi. I hope that your stay
here, during this meeting, would be both enjoyable and
fruitful.
2. No country or region can be an island unto itself.
History has shown that countries which have retreated
into isolation or seclusion or have very little to do
with the outside world have not been able to make
significant progress. Indeed, such countries may even
have regressed. Whether we like it or not we all need
to interact with each other, be it a mere exchange of
views on issues of common concern, or for cooperation in
carrying out certain programmes of mutual benefit, for
trade and commerce certainly or even for seeking to
consolidate our strengths.
3. It is, I believe, in such a spirit of cooperation
for development that the Asia-Kyushu Regional Exchange
Summit was initiated. The first summit was held in
Oita, Japan in 1994. Philippines was host to the Second
Summit in 1995 which was held in Manila. The Third
Summit was in Fukuoka in 1996. I hope this Fourth
Summit held in Malaysia would give further impetus
towards achieving the goals for which this Regional
Exchange Summit was established.
4. I recall that this Regional Exchange Summit rests
on four core principles which were enunciated at the
first summit. They are:
(i) to pursue regional cooperation while remaining open
to the world;
(ii) to promote regional exchange;
(iii) to deepen mutual understanding and friendship; and
(iv) to continue the regional exchange summit.
These are laudable objectives. I also notice that since
the first summit, various areas have been identified as
useful for regional exchanges. The Joint Declaration of
the Third Summit reported that views were exchanged on
various topics such as the economy, industry,
environmental conservation and human resources
development. The Fukuoka Declaration, as it is called,
emphasises the need to pursue `mutually complementary
economic exchange'; to work towards `mutual cooperation
at the international and regional levels in environment
conservation', and also to work towards `the development
of human resources that will be able to play a leading
role in the Asia of the twenty-first century'.
5. It is characteristic of all meetings, or seminars,
or conferences, or summits, to make declarations of
intent or resolutions. Such declarations of intent are
of course important as they identify the objectives that
participants will have to strive for. But objectives
will remain just objectives, if we do not travel along
the paths that we have marked out. All too often, we
would merely travel the path already well trodden by
others. Nothing new usually is discovered on old paths.
We need therefore to blaze new trails and embark on new
directions.
6. Despite the trend towards globalisation, Asia needs
to seek its own destiny. Asia needs new, bold and
dynamic visions. More importantly, Asia needs to chart
its own paths. We cannot unthinkingly follow along the
paths mapped out by others before because then we would
only be following from behind and would never catch up.
We have to be brave enough to explore new pathways and
new destinations. To do this we must have more faith in
ourselves and be more hardy and determined. If we do so
we may come out ahead of those who went before us.
7. There are of course those among us and more so
among our detractors who think that because of the
current economic and financial turmoil deliberately
caused by non-Asian manipulators that the Asian century
will not come by, that Asian values will not bring about
the predicted Asian dominance. I am not one of those
who think that the 21st Century would be the Asian
Century. Rather I believe the next century will be the
Global Century. But that Global Century will be helped
into being by Asian values, for we do not believe in
destroying others, undermining them deliberately, doing
shady things in order to ensure that they fail. Nor do
we gloat obscenely when we see others suffer as a result
of our actions. Asians and their Asian values will
contribute to the Global Century because we are not
afraid to see others prosper, we believe in prospering
others in order to prosper ourselves. These Asian
values will not only overcome the present problem but it
would actually help us to be magnanimous to those who
try to disable us. Thus will the Global Century be
brought about.
8. It is in the nature of things that experience
shortens the time to learn or do things. The
development of modern Europe, itself copied from the
growth and development of several West Asia
civilisations such as those of the Phoenicians, the
Persian, Arab-Islamic and Turkish, took several
centuries. When Japan decided to modernise along
European lines, the process took a much shorter time. In
the post World War II period several East Asian
countries decided to follow Japan and without exception
they grew at a much faster rate. Today we have so many
East Asian countries rapidly developing and destined to
be little Japans whatever the impediments that may be
put in their way.
9. They cannot grow alone and in isolation, at least
if they want to avoid the mistakes of others, the
mistakes of the past. They need to work together with
their role model. It is a matter of great satisfaction
that Japan has responded and has actually actively
participated in the development efforts of the countries
of East Asia including South East Asia. It was Japan's
decision to invest in productive industrial activities
in South East Asia which showed up the capabilities of
the peoples of the region in modern technics and
technological skills, skills which in the past were
believed to be the preserve of non-Asians and the
Japanese only. And again it is Japan which has offered
to help us in South East Asia to overcome the problems
created by others to prevent our development.
10. Having said this, let me now say something about
the topic I am asked to speak on i.e., `Smart
partnership in the next millennium'. We introduced the
concept of `smart partnership' in the fourth Langkawi
International Dialogue held in 1995. Partnerships are
of course not new. But quite often partnerships benefit
one partner more than the other. In fact at times one
partner gains at the expense of the others. In the
classic zero sum game theory you win if the other loses.
We are seeing this today where the region of South East
Asia loses in order for the currency traders and others
to profit. The result is not the creation of additional
wealth but only the transfer of wealth from one party to
another. The loser this time loses more than what is
gained by the winner, making this not a zero sum but a
negative sum game.
11. In the concept of smart partnership new wealth is
created and is shared equally or at least fairly by the
partners. Both sides gain. In fact everyone gains.
South East Asian countries were at one time poor
commodity producing countries. The commodities were
sold at the low prices which were set by commodity
markets outside the control of the producer countries.
The gain for the South East Asian producers was minimal
and at times they suffered loses. The commodities were
then processed in the industrialised countries and
reexported to the South East Asian countries and sold at
high prices. Over the years the South East Asian
commodity producers have to export more and more of
their commodities in order to buy less and less of the
manufactured imports. The terms of trade was less and
less favourable to the commodity producers. They were
getting poorer and poorer relative to the industrialised
countries.
12. To break this vicious cycle the South East Asian
countries decided to industrialise. Unfortunately they
had no manufacturing know-how, no capital and no market
for mass-produced goods. They decided to invite foreign
investors to manufacture in their countries. The
foreign investors gained from low-cost labour, land and
tax holidays. The countries of South East Asia gained
employment opportunities, export earnings, skills and
eventually manufacturing know-how and capital. Today
the countries of South East Asia are not only capable of
manufacturing and exporting goods of quality and
sophistication, but they are able to export capital and
expertise to other developing countries. They become
quite prosperous.
13. The partnership between the foreign investors
largely Japanese and the host countries can be
considered as smart for clearly both sides have gained.
Until recently Malaysia was the perfect example of a
smart partnership between foreign direct investors and a
hospitable country. That partnership could have
continued indefinitely to the benefit of everyone. The
problem that is faced by the South East Asian countries
now is due to greed on the part of a partner. Instead
of taking a fair share the partner decided to take
everything for himself and impoverish his partner in the
process.
14. This kind of partner does not take a long term
view. They only invest in shares which can be dumped and
the money taken out. As soon as the shares appreciate
sufficiently they are disposed off and the capital gains
collected. The partnership is certainly not smart. It
is exploitative and host countries should avoid this
kind of investors. If allowed to invest they should be
restricted. The source of their funds must be carefully
examined.
15. There are other types of investments which are also
not smart, although they may result in stimulating the
economy and creating instant wealth. Smart partnerships
are usually involved in investments which cannot be
liquidated easily in order to make off with the gains.
They are usually serious, long term, open, and concerned
with production of goods and services.
16. Let all delegates to the Asia-Kyushu Summit
demonstrate to the rest of the world not only what
regional cooperation is all about, but what is meant by
true partnership, smart partnership. Show them that in
a smart partnership the over-riding concern is that both
will benefit. Remember that in enriching the other you
enrich yourself. If you impoverish others, you
impoverish yourself. I must add in passing that
Malaysia is now not able to import as much as it did
before with the impoverishment that it has suffered due
to the `attack' on the Ringgit. The result as you know
is the impoverishment of our trading partners, whose
currencies have now been devalued also.
17. Kyushu is well suited for a smart partnership with
other regions in Asia. Geographically, Kyushu located
in the southern-most tip of Japan, is the closest region
of Japan to other regions in Asia. Kyushu does a lot of
business with Asian countries. Almost 50 percent of its
exports go to Asia, twice as big as its exports to the
United States, and more than the national average of 45
percent. As for imports, almost 46 percent originate
from Asia, still higher than the national average of 35
percent. A bigger number of Japanese from Kyushu than
from other regions in Japan visit other countries in
Asia. No less than 60 percent of Kyushu tourists go to
Asia. Foreign visitors to Japan also show a preference
for Kyushu. Almost 89 percent of foreign visitors go to
Kyushu. These statistic are not the latest. I believe
the numbers now may have gone up even more.
18. Therefore, it is my firm conviction that there are
many things that Asia and Kyushu can do together. In
almost every area of useful human endeavour, Asian
countries are looking for partners - serious, equal and
more importantly, smart partners. In information
technology, for instance, there is plenty of scope for
partnerships. In Malaysia we are building a Multimedia
Super Corridor to be home to multinational or
transnational companies. The MSC, in short, is to
provide a unique test bed, an healthy environment for
multimedia business to grow and flourish and contribute
to the well-being and progress of the world. In this
effort Malaysia needs partners to develop this ambitious
project. We are not doing this for nothing, of course.
We expect to benefit a lot, but we wish to be a smart
partner to the world. We expect the world to benefit
from our MSC.
19. At the First Asia-Kyushu Regional Exchange Summit
in Oita, I recall I spoke about the concept of the East
Asia Economic Caucus. Although the EAEC as such has not
been accepted by all, especially Japan, I could see the
intent and spirit of the EAEC taking shape in other
fora, such as this one. Today, I talk about `Smart
Partnerships in the Next Millennium' I hope the little I
have said about Smart Partnerships will serve to promote
the concept of consultation between the countries of
East Asia which is embodied in the EAEC proposal. This
is already the Fourth Asia-Kyushu Regional Exchange
Summit. We should go beyond mere exchange and act fast.
Perhaps, we should also relabel this summit and call it
Asia-Kyushu Regional Action Summit.
20. On this note, I declare open this Forum Asia-Kyushu
Regional Exchange Summit.
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