SPEECH BY

 

YAB DATO’ SERI ANWAR BIN IBRAHIM

PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA

 

AT THE

 

MALAYSIA-TÜRKIYE BUSINESS FORUM

 

 

11 FEBRUARY 2025 | TUESDAY | 3.00 PM

PUTRAJAYA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE (PICC)

 

 

Assalammualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh dan Salam Sejahtera.

 

Sahabat dan pemimpin Turkiye, President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan dan delegasi.

 

Saya ucap terima kasih dan penghargaan kepada NCCIM dan DEİK kerana mengadakan majlis pada hari ini.

 

1. And of course, I need to also express my appreciation to both Ministers of Trade because of their effort in collaboration with the NCCIM and DEİK. You have had this series of meetings, sessions earlier, but as expressed by President Erdoğan, the execution of the plan is critical. 5.1 billion trade is of course an increase of almost 20 percent in a year, 18.9 percent.

 

2. Now, if you compute that, say 20 percent a year, we should meet the target of 10 billion dollars in five years. But knowing our impatience and the President’s insistence, we should reach the target much earlier. There’s a huge potential in Malaysia and in Türkiye, both in terms of your strength in defence, our strength in semiconductor, your strengths in tourism and food technology, our strength I think in terms of the penetration of markets within ASEAN and the region in Asia. I think we should collaborate well enough.

 

3. You see, bilateral relations and diplomatic relations is not only based on economic imperative. It is based on sincere friendship and trust. And we have after all these decades learn the hard way and realize that the potential is not fully utilized and maximized.

 

4. So, I believe therefore having a common viewpoint, ideas, visions will not be sufficient if we do not then support. When I mentioned this interest in terms of managing the big collaboration in terms of petroleum and gas and the fields that I alluded to earlier. I am not ignoring the importance of SMEs because SME as many of you are presented today, are the backbone and pillar. In Malaysia they are the vast majority. The strength is of course in the SMEs and we wanted therefore both National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) and DEİK is a Turkish trade organization with the ministries, not only international trade of both countries, but various ministries to also focus on the second tier because they have his enormous potential to be supported and expanded and we should have a forum, a special outfit where we deal specifically for this tier, this what we consider as the capacity to innovate further, to be more creative and to ensure that the SME is a given priority.

 

5. Malaysia for example, the National Policy in our Industry Master Plan do give some set of priorities and then of course for the semiconductor, in the strategic semiconductor program. But we are not ignoring the importers the entire strategy is based on the supply chain and most of it are under that category. We can talk about all the big multinationals and conglomerates, but we cannot ignore the fact that we can only succeed if we focus on the SME in terms of effective supply chain and being given a chance to expand.

 

6. So, I wouldn’t mold you with the other details. I think we also want to listen to my friend President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, because I think he exemplify defines leader who’s very committed to execute the plan and build up Türkiye as a greater nation. And I think we share that idea, as we do for Malaysia and in the context of ASEAN, we are very fortunate which I must emphasize this final point.

 

7. ASEAN happens to be one of the most peaceful region in the world, and concomitant to that, it is also incidentally the fastest growing economy in the world. So, the avenues and the opportunities are great. And again, why I’m very bullish and confident that this synergy between Türkiye and ASEAN would help because the collaboration and the trust and friendship among ASEAN leaders is unrivalled compared to other countries that I know. We have for example, very strong collaboration between other than ASEAN as a group in energy, ASEAN Energy Grid right from Vietnam to Laos to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Sarawak, Sabah, South Philippines into again to Battam Indonesia. That’s just the energy grid which give this focus of the strength based on strong bond of friendship and trust.

 

8. And then, we have focusing also on digitalization of the whole region. We are working hard on this. My team has been focusing on this and I am very optimistic. And then bilaterally or sub regionally, Malaysia, Thailand for example, focus on areas, our weakest areas, the poorest provinces in the north of Malaya, poorest provinces in the South of Thailand. We focus on economic development to secure peace in that area and also propel economic development for the more successful or economically vibrant and dynamic area.

 

9. Singapore and Johor, we have what is unique in any form of international relations. The Johor Singapore Economic Zone, two countries based on absolute trust working together, promoting both region in the south and Singapore, both countries together. And this is again, to me a source of great satisfaction because rarely you will find this.

 

10. So, Türkiye is dealing with Malaysia with it’s capacity to expand its market and collaboration with other countries in ASEAN.

 

So, teşekkür ederim, thank you and welcome.

 

 

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