Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SERI PERDANA, PUTRAJAYA
Tarikh/Date : 10-05-2001
Tajuk/Title : THE OFFICIAL DINNER IN HONOUR OF
THE HONOURABLE DR. KENNY D.
ANTHONY THE PRIME MINISTER OF
ST. LUCIA
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
It gives me great pleasure to welcome to Seri
Perdana this evening the Hon. Prime Minister of St.
Lucia and Mrs. Anthony and members of his delegation.
Their visit to Malaysia is a historic milestone in our
relations in that this is the first visit ever by a
Prime Minister of St. Lucia to Malaysia.
2. Prime Minister, I recall my own visits to St.
Lucia in 1991 and more recently in 1999 and the warm
and generous hospitality I received during those
visits. During my last visit we had talked about the
possibility of your visiting Malaysia. I am delighted
that you have now given me the honour to host you and
your delegation in Malaysia.
3. Malaysia and St. Lucia share many things in common
even though we are geographically far apart. Because of
our common historical background, we share a similar
system of Government as well as similar legal and
administrative structures. We are also both members of
the Commonwealth and the Group of Seventy-Seven.
Equally important, we share a common aspiration to
develop our respective nations in order to secure
peace, prosperity and stability for our peoples in a
rapidly changing and challenging world.
4. Malaysia would like to build upon these
commonalities to strengthen bilateral cooperation. We
can and must find ways to assist each other and learn
from each other. In this connection, we want to work
with St. Lucia to develop a mutually beneficial
framework for bilateral cooperation. Malaysia also
stands ready to cooperate with St. Lucia under our
Technical Cooperation Programme. I believe that
Malaysia can also offer the young people of St. Lucia a
conducive, friendly and competitive environment to
pursue their higher education at fees which are very
low and competitive. I hope you will take back with you
the message that our universities, and particularly
those that specialise in information technology is open
to St. Lucians. Studying in Malaysia will also expose
St. Lucia to the dynamics and the vast economic
potential of our East Asian region.
5. I wish to reiterate that we will also encourage
Malaysian businessmen to consider investing in St.
Lucia's tourism industry. The tourism industry has
been growing in Malaysia. We had more than 10 million
tourists last year. Perhaps our people can contribute
to your tourist industry.
6. Malaysia has always believed in seeking to
establish and enhance friendships across the globe. As
a small developing country, Malaysia has been
particularly keen to strengthen relations with other
developing countries. We think this is of strategic
importance. We have seen how small developing countries
are often ignored and sidelined at important global
conferences and negotiations on trade, finance and
other critical issues. We are acutely aware of the raw
deal you had in the banana trade.
7. For this reason, Malaysia has been a consistent
advocate of closer South-South relations. We have also
been very active in the Group of 77, the Group of 15
and the Non-Aligned Movement. I hasten to add that it
is not our desire nor is it our intention to seek
confrontation with the developed countries. What we
are striving to achieve is a fairer system of
consultation and decision making in which the interests
of both developing and developed countries can be given
appropriate consideration.
8. Our ability to forge an effective South-South
consensus that would enable developing countries to
speak with one voice and coordinate our positions will
be particularly crucial in the context of the new round
of WTO negotiations. There is a real fear that the new
round could severely disadvantage developing countries.
We are being asked to remove the safety net that we
have put in place to protect our economies with no
guarantees that our interests will be protected, that
we will gain anything substantive in return.
9. It is my hope that Malaysia and St. Lucia,
together with other developing countries will
strengthen our own process of consultation and dialogue
in order that we may be better able to press for the
interests of developing countries.
10. Once again, please allow me to say how honoured we
are to welcome you to Malaysia. We trust that you will
have a pleasant and fruitful visit. On the basis of our
discussion this morning, I think I can say that we have
established a good framework for our future relations.
Please convey to the people of St. Lucia the warm
greetings and good wishes of the people of Malaysia.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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