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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR.
MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : MINES EXHIBITION CENTRE,SERI
KEMBANGAN, SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN
Tarikh/Date : 13/11/98
Tajuk/Title : THE OPENING OF THE THIRD APEC
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR 1998
I would like to welcome foreign exhibitors and
visitors to Malaysia and to the Third APEC International
Trade Fair '98 which is an event organised to promote and
facilitate trade and investment among APEC economies. The
Fair provides participants with information on trade and
investment opportunities currently available in the APEC
region.
2. It is encouraging to note that despite the on-going
regional economic crisis, all APEC member economies are
participating in this Fair. Indeed the participation of
a large number of exhibitors as well as the presence of
business personalities representing various sectors of
the economy demonstrate the commitment and confidence of
the business community in the economies of the region.
3. The financial and economic crisis, which started
since middle of 1997, has adversely affected the APEC
economies. It has caused devaluation of the currencies
and stock markets in East Asia, in particular Thailand,
Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Singapore. In the case of Malaysia, the
economy is projected to contract by 4.8 percent in 1998.
Likewise, Thailand's economy is forecast to shrink by
eight percent, while Indonesia 15 percent and the
Republic of Korea 6.8 percent this year. The economic
crisis is no longer confined to these economies. It has
created contagion effect on other economies in the region
as well as the global economy e.g. Latin America, Europe,
Japan and USA. Generally, the economic crisis has
negatively impacted on the export and import performance
of these economies.
4. The economic crisis has reduced the capacity of the
affected economies to export and import goods and
services. The exports of ASEAN economies namely
Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia have
registered declines in their value in terms of U.S
dollars. Similarly, imports into ASEAN countries have
also declined. For the first quarter of this year,
Indonesia's imports plunged by 32.4 percent, Malaysia's
by 12.6 percent and the Philippines by 4.3 percent. The
reduction in imports resulting from the economic slowdown
had also directly affected the export performance of the
economies of the U.S, Australia and New Zealand. It is
estimated that during the period of January to August
1998, U.S exports to ASEAN declined by 18.3 percent
compared to the corresponding period in 1997. Similarly,
the exports of Australia and New Zealand to the ASEAN
region are also reported to have declined.
5. Under the current economic circumstances, economies
in Asia have intensified their efforts to increase
exports to hasten their economic recovery. It is
crucial, therefore, for the export markets of these
affected economies to remain open for the products
originating from these countries. There appears to be a
discernible trend towards protectionism as local
industries which are no longer competitive lobby or
justify the imposition of non-tariff measures of various
sorts. These include the increasing resort to anti-
dumping action, countervailing measures and transitional
safeguards against the exports from Asia. I would like
to urge the advanced member economies to support the
export efforts of the affected economies to facilitate
the economic recovery process.
6. The current economic situation calls for APEC to
continue with its trade liberalisation programmes in a
manner that would benefit all member economies. The
different capacities of economies to embrace
liberalisation must be recognised. The weakened
economies cannot be expected to shoulder the same level
of commitments to liberalise their market as the stronger
ones. Unrestrained liberalisation may eventually weaken
the economy further and yield results which are the
opposite of what is expected. In such a situation,
nobody actually benefits. Therefore, it is important to
ensure that market liberalisation measures take into
account the specific development features and constraints
of countries at different levels of development. In
undertaking liberalisation initiatives we must work
towards a win-win situation where all will benefit from
the process.
7. More collaborative efforts between the private
sectors within the APEC economies need to be undertaken
to facilitate intra-regional trade and investment in the
region. The private sector should consider long-term
goals and action plans towards capacity building
especially in such areas as improving the infrastructure,
increasing skills among personnel and developing new
technologies. Exchanging and the sharing of technology
especially among the less-developed APEC economies should
be enhanced.
8. Several of the affected economies including Malaysia
have already implemented various short and long term
measures and policies to attract foreign direct
investments as well as restore confidence among the
international business community.
9. I regret to note that these efforts are being
undermined by the negative and biased report of several
credit rating agencies and the media. Their persistent
and determined misreporting and assessment have done a
disservice to their clients whose decisions are based on
these reports. Investors should really travel to these
countries to see for themselves what is really happening.
10. As members of the business community you have an
important role to work together with the government of
these economies in their economic recovery efforts. In
this context, I would like to urge the business community
to evaluate the economic environment of the country in an
objective and balanced manner. In particular, when
making investment decisions you should avoid being overly
dependent on reports and value judgements of credit
rating agencies and the media. It is worthwhile noting
that none of the rating agencies or the media predicted
the current economic turmoil.
11. I would like to encourage the business community to
make your evaluation taking into account factors such as
size of the market, consumer purchasing power, political
stability and other socio-economic indicators. It is
also imperative for the private sector to be well
informed of local laws and regulations and how business
is conducted in the respective economies. Businessmen
should make use of various facilities provided by APEC
which include tariff and trade databases, databases on
investment and services flows and guidebooks on the
investment regime of APEC economies.
12. Malaysia attaches great importance to the
strengthening of economic and technical cooperation to
address the diversity and the different levels of
economic development of member economies. Skills
development and harnessing technologies of the future are
two priority areas under economic and technical
cooperation activities. This is reflected in the theme
of the Third APEC International Trade Fair '98,
"Enhancing Global Competitiveness Through Technology and
Human Resource Development". It is my hope that through
this theme, the Fair will help to promote among members
the importance of innovative technologies and skills
upgrading in order to maintain competitiveness in the
export market.
13. In addition, the Fair also adopted "Emergency
Preparedness in APEC" as its sub-theme. As a result of
natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region, over
200,000 deaths and over US$5 billion in material damages
occurred since 1990. Speaking from Malaysia's
experience, the haze which originated from forest fires
adversely affected our tourism industry and the health of
our people last year. We have also heard this year
about floods in Peru, Papua New Guinea, and China and
typhoons in the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and the
United States with tremendous effects on their economies.
Using this theme, the Fair promotes capacity building in
the area of emergency preparedness among member
economies.
14. APEC should strengthen its capability to respond,
act and implement the various initiatives and mechanisms
that it has developed in the light of emergencies faced
by the affected economies. Cooperation especially from
the more advanced economies is crucial.
15. Malaysia believes that our economic crisis is only
temporary, and we are confident that with the
Government's and private sector's commitments to
revitalise the economy, we should be able to put Malaysia
on the path of recovery. Malaysia has taken several
measures to revive the economy through stabilising
policies and regulatory infrastructures to insulate
Malaysia from speculative activities in the Malaysian
currency and stock market. We have internalised the
Malaysian Ringgit in order to stabilise the exchange rate
and create greater certainty for people to do
international business. As a result of these measures,
the economy of Malaysia is expected to turn around with a
projected growth of one percent in 1999.
16. Finally, I wish to thank all participants for taking
part in this Fair and I hope that this event will
provide greater opportunities in expanding your business.
17. I now have the pleasure of declaring open the Third
APEC International Trade Fair '98 in Kuala Lumpur.
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