Malaysia-India Business Forum
December 20, 2004, New Delhi

Welcome Address by Mr Yogendra Kr. Modi, President, FICCI

• Hon'ble Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
  Prime Minister of Malaysia
  
• Excellencies
  
• Mr Sunil Munjal, President, CII
  
• Senior Government Officials
  
• Distinguished Delegates
  
• Ladies & Gentlemen;

I have been assigned the very pleasant task of delivering the Concluding Remarks on behalf of FICCI and CII. This is indeed a historic occasion and I am sure that all of us present here are feeling privileged to be a part of this Third Business Forum. FICCI has had the privilege of being part of the earlier two Forums.

We are delighted to have you amongst us, Sir, today. Your visionary speech this morning set all of us in a thinking mode. This meeting will undoubtedly go a long way in strengthening our relationship.

We are aware, Excellency, of your concerns about the progress of Malaysia. This is reflected in your process of thoughts. Your view that ASEAN should take collective steps to counter the adverse affect of globalization, while making sure that the benefits are shared by all, is truly a testimony to your far-sighted and dynamic leadership.

Malaysia's 2020 vision has influenced many countries to have long-term visions of their own. This is an important contribution by your country, Sir, to the world for planning ahead in all spheres with a national vision.

We agree with you that South-South Cooperation is an important instrument for accelerating the growth of developing countries. It underpins the strategy of collective self-reliance and stimulates effective utilisation of potential as well as exploitation of the growing complementarities in the economies.

From FICCI, We look forward to deepening linkages with Malaysia by having an Economic Cooperation worked out between the two Governments to initially start with focusing on few sectors and items, which can be expanded later.

India-Malaysia Ties

Malaysia is the 10th largest investor in India from the world and the largest investor in India from the ASEAN region with a total approved investment of US 1.70 billion during the period 1991-2003, but the Actual FDI Inflows (1991-March 2003) was US$ 76.4 million. Areas covered include liquefied petroleum gas and other products, power plants, paging system and construction of highways. Since August 1991, over 70 financial and technical Malaysian Indian joint ventures have been approved in areas - software production, aqua culture, radio paging systems, electrical apparatus for medical purposes, telephone equipment, food processing, heat resistant etc. Fuels (power and oil refinery) sector accounts for 66 per cent of investment approvals from Malaysia.

India has invested close to US $ 420 million in Malaysia, especially in the manufacturing sector, with a total of 144 projects.

Recent Projects of Malaysia in India

The Rs.1400 crore Hyderabad International Airport Project to be built by a consortium, led by the GMR Group and Malaysian airport holding, has obtained clearance from the Defence Ministry in November this year.

Malaysian telecom firms are taking a leaf out of SingTel's book by pursuing overseas acquisitions worth at least US $ 500 million as domestic mobiles subscriber growth starts to plateau where nearly 9 out of 10 people own a mobile phone.

Recently (December 11, 2004), Singapore Technologies Telemedia & the investment arm of Telekom Malaysia signed a deal to acquire 47.7 per cent stake in Idea Cellular of India for approximately US $ 390 million. The entry of the two foreign players is expected to bring about substantial changes in the local mobile market.

Cooperation in Sectors

As per the Malaysian External Trade & Development Corporation, Malaysia is undertaking 26 projects with India worth US $ 1.2 billion. The projects currently underway between the two countries are in the areas of highways & roads, water supplies & housing. Malaysia has completed 21 projects in India worth US $ 830 million and is looking to expand its participation in infrastructure projects including power, airport and port development. There is also scope for joint collaboration in third countries.

Although Malaysian companies are involved in Housing Development projects and urban townships in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We look forward to your companies participating in a much bigger way in this sector.

• In the Tourism sector of Malaysia, Indian tourists were amongst the top 10 generating markets for Malaysia in the year 2003. There were 1,45,000 visitors from India, leading to a yield of nearly US $ 71.15 million and we expect this to go up by nearly 25 per cent annually year-on-year. Even if 10 per cent of the Indians become international tourists, it would amount to 100 million tourists, or some four times as big as the Malaysian population.
  There is scope for joint venturing in health tourism as also in the adventure, sports and eco-tourism.

Internet-Visa scheme now being implemented as a pilot project in Chennai for travel agents so as to boost the rate of tourism flows from India to Malaysia has been greatly lauded in India. This has greatly helped agents who were handling bulk business and tourist traffic between Chennai and Kuala Lumpur. However, we look forward to easing of issuance of Business Visas to enhance the travel of our businessmen in an easier manner and at a short notice.

Media and film industry is another important sector for enhancing our cooperation, because of India's huge entertainment industry. Already your Tourism Board is promoting Malaysia as a shooting locale. While doing so we need to make adequate provision for safeguarding from piracy as it is rampant with over 40 % in all our countries- India, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan and Russia.

Biotechnology sector is an exciting area as it includes medical, agricultural functional food / nutritional, research. The market for biotech products is expected to exceed US $4 billion in 2005 as it is in its most exciting phase of growth today.

Collaboration in Information Technology between the Indian software industry and Malaysian hardware is another area for cooperation as Malaysia has established itself as an important hardware hub.

Concluding Remarks

Observations made here today have highlighted the potential areas for enhancing trade and investment between our two countries. Undoubtedly, there exists immense scope for mutual cooperation in sectors like - Space technology, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Bio-informatics, Genomics and Ayurveda, IT development and training, Telecommunication, Food processing, Tourism & Banking.

FICCI also had the privilege of organizing an exclusive session for HE Mahathir at the First India-ASEAN summit. It was the former Prime Minister's well known and respected management style, forward-thinking policies that have enabled Malaysia to create a more harmonious society among its diverse ethnic groups thereby enhancing the quality of life for all Malaysian people and achieving progress without compromising Malaysian values, identity and culture. He wanted to make the Malaysian economy fully competitive. HE Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Hon'ble Prime Minister of Malaysia is making the economy move towards that direction.

I would like to thank His Excellency & the visiting delegation and all those present here today for being with us this afternoon.

I welcome you all to join me in carrying the Vote of Thanks.

Thank you.