Malaysia seeks to send more students to New Zealand, says PM

The Star

Malaysia hopes to send more students, particularly postgraduates pursuing new fields such as energy transition and food technology, to study in New Zealand, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.  The Prime Minister said this is an area he has requested visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to consider.  Read more at https://shorturl.at/nTbzI  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00And in fact I told him as a Nengite, we know about the set up in Bathurst, the Air Force,

00:07the long-standing relations since the Second World War. And then I met him, we

00:17did a fruitful engagement in Melbourne and I found him to be extremely cordial,

00:24supportive and more so very businesslike in his relations. He wants results next

00:32week if not tomorrow. So I think we did discuss a number of issues. First of

00:39course enhancing the bilateral relations from strategic towards comprehensive

00:44strategic partnership which we were exploring both with Malaysia and ASEAN.

00:50And then students exchange, we have benefited from these exchanges in the

00:58past. There are New Zealand students in Malaysia but also increasing number and we

01:05have asked him to facilitate the possibility of getting more students to

01:10New Zealand, particularly the postgraduate, in new areas where they

01:15have shown to be have the expertise including energy transition and of

01:23course food technology. And then we both agreed in this bilateral session that

01:33we had to enhance collaboration, trade, investments, in research, particularly all

01:42areas including halal industry. And it is, we did acknowledge the fact that it is

01:49quite unfortunate that with so much potential and such a great relationship

01:56that we have had for decades if not for nearly a century, we're not able to take

02:04measures to enhance this sort of collaboration. So I therefore have, we'll

02:12start having a cabinet meeting tomorrow and to use his advice and experience,

02:19things have to be done fast and we will certainly take it up. And may I again

02:24thank you very much Prime Minister Luk Song for this visit and we are fortunate

02:31to have you and your delegation and we look forward to a stronger bond and

02:37friendship both between Malaysia and New Zealand and also at the personal level.

02:42Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Malaysia is one of our oldest friends in Asia. We

02:47have a warm and a deep relationship but I wanted to come here in my first year

02:51in office because there is room for us to do so much more together, much much

02:56more. And with our overall strategic partnership, Prime Minister Anwar and I

03:00have today agreed to inject more momentum into our collaboration and

03:04we're expanding our defence cooperation including by deploying one of our New

03:09Zealand Air Force new P-8 Poseidons to Butterworth to exercise together. We've

03:14agreed new cooperation and enhanced efforts on transnational crime,

03:18counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism. We've agreed to expand our

03:23trade by increasing the value of our two-way trade by 50% by 2030 and

03:27tackling the non-tariff barriers that exist between our two countries and

03:32impede the flow particularly of our primary products both ways. We're working

03:36on e-certification and new customs cooperation to smooth flows at the

03:40border and we've talked a lot more about what we can do to strengthen our

03:43education links and our youth exchanges so that the next generation of Kiwis and

03:48Malaysians have that same close relationship that we enjoy today.

03:51Prime Minister, I do want to acknowledge Malaysia's incredible growth story. It's

03:55an extraordinary story that your government is committed to advancing.

03:59There's much that New Zealand can learn from you and your exceptional success

04:04attracting foreign investment is something that I look forward to and

04:07have enjoyed discussing with you today as well. That's also why we have the

04:11leaders of 17 of New Zealand's biggest businesses that have joined me on this

04:14delegation over the next two days. They want to support Malaysia and its success

04:19and our two countries partner together for a better future so that we can raise

04:23prosperity for both of our peoples in both of our great countries. Our

04:27companies here are also to explore opportunities, market opportunities in

04:30this market and Malaysia has long been a top-ten export market for New Zealand

04:35and we feel lucky that you like our nutritious and safe products which as I

04:40said to the Prime Minister are infinitely better than the Australian products but

04:44we then decided not to have a diplomatic incident and moved on very quickly but

04:49we've got a diverse range of businesses here today in Malaysia and we think we

04:53can offer you so much more in sectors like tourism and education where we

04:56want to build even greater links between our people which give us those

04:59people-to-people bonds are so important. So Prime Minister, can I just say

05:03again thank you so much for your generosity, thank you for your personal

05:06leadership, thank you for the friendship and I look forward to it continuing to

05:10deepen and strengthen at a country-to-country level but also

05:13between us at a personal level as well. So again thank you so much for your time,

05:16appreciate it.

05:19Thank you. If there are no questions, thank you very much.

05:25Can we have the first question? Yes.

05:29Good morning Prime Minister Laksan.

05:31Good morning.

05:33Nice to meet you.

05:35If I can ask one question each for both of you.

05:37How do you see Prime Minister Laksan's visit to Malaysia to further strengthen bilateral

05:44bilateral trade between Malaysia and New Zealand?

05:48And for Prime Minister Laksan,

05:50how can both countries strengthen tourism ties and encourage more people-to-people exchanges?

05:56Right, I mean the fact that the new Prime Minister of New Zealand

06:02chooses to visit us in his first year in office shows his personal commitment and

06:10New Zealand's commitment to attempt to enhance relations and we discussed this

06:19is a comprehensive arrangement in the sense that goes just beyond diplomatic

06:25engagement to get us to understand some issues particularly affecting the region,

06:32I mean the South China Sea was raised, an issue of Russian invasion of Ukraine and

06:38our position vis-à-vis the atrocities committed in Gaza and so there's an

06:44opportunity to engage and understand but more important in terms of both

06:48bilateral relations is the issue of trade, potential investments, tourism, education

06:54and I think the fact that the Prime Minister himself is here and shows that

06:59sort of strong commitment would certainly go well for both countries in

07:03terms of enhancing these collaborative efforts and the trade and investments.

07:08Yeah and it's a real honor to be here, I'm the first New Zealand Prime Minister to be here since

07:122015 and the reason is because I love Malaysia, it's a fantastic country, it's got so much

07:18potential and we are so close because we've got these historical ties that go way back

07:23over many many decades but the Prime Minister and I both want to make sure that the relationship

07:27is set up so in the subsequent decades you know young Malaysians and young Kiwis are

07:32actually building connections with each other so the relationship in 10 and 20 and 30 years

07:37time is in good heart as well. I agree with you, I think tourism and education are really the ways

07:42in which we build those initial people-to-people connections when you go visit a country or when

07:47you go study in a country and we've had many New Zealanders studying in Malaysia, we've had many

07:52Malaysians study in New Zealand over the decades, you get an understanding of each other and your

07:56societies and the cultures that are different but the values that are often very much the same

08:01and that's the opportunity for us to then build out from those people-to-people connections

08:05flows of trade and capital and investment but none of that comes if you don't have those

08:10people-to-people connections at the foundation so look there's a lot more that we can be doing

08:14on tourism, we talked a lot about what we could do on education, obviously you'd be well aware of

08:19the Colombo Plan which was so instrumental and we had so many great Malaysians come to New Zealand

08:25and study and then come back and build the country and I think we've got to think about how we

08:30continue to invest in both those education and tourism going forward. Thank you.

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