Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests & Alumni of MTCP Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
1. Selamat Datang! It gives me great pleasure in welcoming you to the MTCP Alumni dinner gathering this evening.
2. The purpose of our dinner gathering tonight is to promote continuous engagements and foster a long-lasting and strong bond of friendship with all who have attended the MTCP courses in Malaysia.
3. It is also to establish closer relations and strengthen networking between the High Commission and former MTCP participants, particularly from Pakistan.
4. The MTCP reflects Malaysia’s commitment to South-South cooperation, particularly technical cooperation among developing countries.
5. The programme was formulated based on our principle that the development of a country depends on the quality of its human resources. In addition, Malaysia sees MTCP as integral towards strengthening mutually beneficial bilateral relations.
6. MTCP emphasizes human resources development mainly through training and capacity-building courses including short-term courses at Malaysian public and private training institutions, and long-term courses at Malaysian public universities.
7. Annually, Malaysia’s flagship MTCP offers more than 60 technical training and capacity-building programmes in vast areas of development in collaboration with leading local training institutions and international development partners.
8. Programmes such as agriculture, economy, finance and trade, education, environment, industrial technical training, diplomacy, public management and administration, professional services, social development and science, technology and ICT are offered by leading Malaysian training institutions, many of which are centres of excellence for training.
9. To date, more than 34,500 participants from 144 developing countries have benefited from the various programmes offered under the MTCP since its inception in 1980.
10. I must also highlight the strong ties between Malaysia and Pakistan which are underpinned by mutual interests, friendly people-to-people relations and the fact that the MTCP has helped foster greater cooperation between the governmental agencies of the two countries and encouraged deeper collaboration between their private sectors.
11. A total of 752 participants from Pakistan have benefitted from the programme. We aim to encourage more future participation from Pakistani officials in the MTCP, as it would not only be beneficial for our bilateral relations but it would also assist in the career development of the participants.
12. Another good news for Pakistan is that this year 2 postgraduate students from Pakistan have been awarded MTCP Scholarship to do postgraduate study. The two of them will commence their study in Universiti Malaysia Pahang and Universiti Sains Malaysiarespectively in the 4th week of October 2021. We wish them all the success in their studies and Insya Allah, they will be the new generation of leader in their respective field in Pakistan.
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
13. May I also take this opportunity tonight to announce that Proton Pakistan, one of our flagship investment in this country, will be inaugurating its first vehicle assembly plant in Zulfiqarabad next week on October 13th.
14. This event will mark the roll out of the first locally assembled SAGA in Pakistan. Saga which is an acronym for Safety, Achievement, Greatness and Ability is Malaysia’s number one car since its launch 35 years ago.
15. The Plant is owned and operated by AlHaj Automotive, the Exclusive Authorized Distributor and also the Assemblers of PROTON vehicles in Pakistan. The opening of this plant will create 2,000 direct employment opportunities in its first three years of operation and it is estimated a further 20,000 indirect jobs will also be created as a result of this new plant being commissioned.
16. I place high hope that with the launching of this plant with its capacity of producing 25,000 unit of vehicle per annum will further strengthen economic ties between the two countries which currently stands at 1.39 billion US Dollars last year.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
17. I am also happy to share that the Malaysian government has lifted the entry restriction for Pakistani citizens with permanent resident status, long-stay passes, businessmen investors, as well as students upon obtaining prior entry approval or My Travel Pass from the Immigration Department of Malaysia. Of course, with health protocols in check, all travellers needed to be fully vaccinated, undergo Covid-19 testing upon arrival and be quarantined for the period stipulated for all foreign arrivals by the Health ministry.
18. We are looking forward to reopening our border. Just yesterday, our Minister of Heath Khairy Jamaluddin announced that 88% of our adult population or 20,603,249 people has been fully vaccinated. That’s another 2% until we are ready to open our state border gradually.
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests & Alumni of MTCP Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen,
19. In closing my remarks, I would like to once again thank you for accepting my invitation and be with us tonight. All of you are friends of Malaysia and have had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty and warmth of my country in terms of its people, its unique cultures and lifestyles and not to miss the variety of food and cuisine.
20. To rekindle those memories, my team at the High Commission have selected a few videos from one famous Pakistani YouTuber, Mr Tahir Khan who has magnificently captured the true essence of Malaysian Hospitality during his trip to my country. I hope that you will visit my beautiful country again once we reopen our border very soon.