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.
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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
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NewsTranscript
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.