This year, Malaysia is celebrating its 50th year of independence and the country and its warm and friendly people are making it the most dazzling, fascinating and exciting year ever for foreign friends, tourists and themselves with year-round festive events.
"Malaysia is celebrating 50 years of nationhood throughout 2007, but the month long celebration from 17 August to 10 September 2007 is especially packed with events and activities that will take Malaysians along the historical journey for independence and showcase Malaysia's achievements and successes as a nation of diverse races, cultures and religions," said Shahril Effendi Abd. Ghany, the Acting President of Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center (MFTC), Taipei.
To invite Taiwan to share this happy occasion, MFTC has teamed up with Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines and Sun World Dynasty Hotel Taipei to co-host a "Malaysia, Truly Asian Kitchen" event from 17 August to 3 September 2007 at the Taipei hotel. Two well-known guest chefs from Chef Association of Malaysia Penang Chapter, six musicians from the Kulintangan Rumpun Seni Group Sabah and traditional dancers from the Sarawak Ethnic Dancers Group, Miri have been especially flown in to present the best of best.
"I can't think of a better way for Malaysia to celebrate our independence anniversary than to invite our Taiwan friends to sample our delicious Malaysian cuisine. In fact, 2007 has seen Malaysia embarking on this Truly Asian Kitchen programme to promote internationally the country's authentic cuisine and unique culture which reflect Malaysia's multi cultural and multi racial societies who live in harmony and tolerance. The event will highlight food and culture as one of Malaysia's uniqueness and strong attraction for tourists to enjoy while visiting Malaysia," the Acting President said. "The event has been very well received and we hope its success will lead to the holding of more such events in the future,"he added.
Significant milestone
" With the independence theme of Malaysiaku Gemilang or My Glorious Malaysia, the Golden Jubilee celebration marks a significant milestone in the history of the nation. At 50, we are but a relatively young nation. While we are thankful at our successes thus far, it is very important that fellow Malaysians reflect on what has been achieved and set the goals for the future," the Acting President elaborated on the significance of Malaysia's 50th birthday.
The last three decades have witnessed Malaysia transformed from a conservative, agricultural and commodity rich country into one of the most prosperous countries in the region. "Malaysia is ranked sixth most competitive economy in Asia after Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, and 26th worldwide based on the Global Competitiveness Index covering 125 countries," Mr. Shahril Effendi Abd. Ghany continued. "We are the 19th largest trading nation in the world and this speaks volumes for a country so young."
He paid tribute to the foresight and brilliant stewardship of the country's past and present leaders who have endeavoured to put in place the necessary foundation to make Malaysia a peaceful and politically stable country with policies and strategies that have made the dynamic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation even greater. Power sharing among different ethnic groups and the common desire to make the best of the resources at hand has ensured racial harmony, stability and economic prosperity.
In this regard, Malaysia is on track towards meeting the objective of becoming a fully industrialized and developed nation by 2020, an ideal proposed by the former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1991 in his Vision 2020 that set out a total of nine challenges for Malaysians to conquer and achieve. "There's only 13 years to go and Malaysians realize just how important it is that we become knowledgeable, productive and are able to position ourselves to compete in an increasingly globalised world. We have every faith in the ability of the present leadership of Prime Minister Dato'Seri Abdullah Hj. Ahmad Badawi to lead us on that journey to become a prosperous nation," he said.
Economic outlook in Malaysia
A decade after the Asian financial crisis, the resilient Malaysian economy including the financial system is at its strongest position. Malaysia's strong economic fundamentals coupled with prudent monetary policies have led to greater economic flexibility to shift to new areas of growth and thus sustain the development momentum.
"Economic growth has been achieved with relative price stability, low unemployment and strong external balances," Mr. Shahril Effendi Abd. Ghany stressed. The level of saving remains high at 37 percent as a percentage to the GDP and the level of external reserves remains strong at USD98.5 billion. "Malaysia has also taken advantage of globalisation to strengthen its economic and financial relationships with the major trading blocs across the globe."
In 2006, the total value of the external trade exceeded RM1 trillion for the first time. Foreign direct investment has been sustained, particularly into the new areas of growth. The private sector continues as the main driver of growth for the fifth consecutive year, while the public sector plays a supportive role. GDP per capita at current prices has increased to USD6,000 in 2006.
While Malaysia continues to attract investment, both domestic and foreign, from the traditional sectors, new sectors such as the manufacturing, services, and oil and gas sectors are gaining in importance. Resources are flowing into new growth areas such as revitalized agriculture sector, high-technology manufacturing industries and biotechnology. "The service sectors such as information technology services, shared services and outsourcing, health and medical tourism, and financial services, in particular Islamic finance, have increased their market share," the Acting President said.
The petroleum industry is also a main contributor to GDP. In line with the government's emphasis on technology-intensive industries, the export-oriented manufacturing sector has been given strong emphasis, resulting in the setting up of many industrial estates.
Although industrialization has taken a bigger role, agriculture is still important with palm oil, rubber, rubber wood, pepper and cocoa beans being major exports. Another big income contributor is the tourism industry that is a close second after the manufacturing sector. It is interesting to note that with various events lined up all over the country throughout the year, the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 held in conjunction with the nation's golden jubilee has so far seen a total of 10.7 million tourist arrival into Malaysia in the period from January-June 2007 with earnings of more than USD6.4 billion. Malaysia is targeting a total of 20.1 million tourist arrivals for the year. Last year, more than 200,000 Taiwanese visited this Southeast Asian nation."We actually do have something for everyone in Malaysia. Look no further if it's pristine, sandy beaches or cool mountain resorts that you're after. Romantic island getaways, scuba diving, shopping, golf courses - all come with the warm Malaysian hospitality and first class service that you'd expect. We are constantly working on new tourism products and we hope to attract even more Taiwan visitors in the years ahead,"quipped the Acting President.
Bilateral trade between Malaysia and Taiwan
In 2006, total two-way trade between Taiwan and Malaysia amounted to USD10.83 billion, a 15.87% increase from USD 9.34 billion recorded in 2005. Malaysia was Taiwan's eighth largest trading partner and Taiwan remained Malaysia's seventh largest export destination.
Malaysia remained the seventh largest source of imports and accounted for 2.99% of Taiwan's total imports (2005:2.9%). In 2006, Malaysia was the eighth (10th in 2005) largest export destination for Taiwan, accounting for 2.26% of Taiwan's total export 92005: 2.2%.
Bright future for Malaysia-Taiwan ties
Despite the absence of formal relations with Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur-Taipei ties have remained strong.
"Malaysia and Taiwan have always enjoyed friendly and substantive relations, particularly in the areas of trade, investment and other economic areas as well as in social and cultural fields including people-to-people exchanges. Many are unaware that our relationship goes back a long way and Taiwan has always been a major economic and trading partner of Malaysia. Therefore, the MFTC's goals in the future must certainly focus on efforts to continuously expand the existing areas of bilateral cooperation while looking for new areas to further strengthen our bilateral ties," the Acting President of MFTC added. "I firmly believe that there is still much that we could do and learn from one another and the potential for further expansion in bilateral cooperation is enormous. It is my sincere hope that this friendship will long continue!"
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