Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia

SOUTH & CENTRAL ASIA

Malaysia’s firm interest to developing a productive, broad–ranging and enduring framework of bilateral cooperative endeavours with the countries in the South and Central regions is driven by political, economic and security imperatives. It is also anchored firmly on the close socio–cultural linkages and some degree of similarity in historical background.

As a region, South Asia with its wide range of natural attributes has enormous potentials to becoming a leading market for Malaysia’s products and services. Riding on its strong economic performance, South Asia has emerged as among the most dynamic growth areas globally. Malaysian entrepreneurs have already established their presence in many sectors in the region especially infrastructure construction and property development. It is only natural for Malaysia to fully capitalise on the goodwill and firm support of the governments of those countries to further deepen our business presence in the region for mutual benefits.

Enormous strides have already been made by India in its drive to develop high Technology industries. These include bio–technology, aerospace and aeronautical engineering as well as information and communication technology. Malaysia’s constructive engagement with India in particular, would provide the necessary strong platform for us to build and strengthen our own high technology industries as major sources of wealth.

Central Asian countries generally look up to Malaysia as a model successful developing country that could be emulated to achieve progress and development. Malaysia already has strong economic linkages especially in the oil and gas sector with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Malaysia has also been playing a prominent role in the human resource development and capacity building in the region. On this basis, Central Asia is certainly a region in which we could deepen our political clout and enhance our circle of friends and allies.
 

3rd Malaysia-India Foreign Office Consultation, 12 March 2012, Putrajaya Shangri-La