PUTRA JAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday invited Australia to be a key participant of the plan to transform Malaysia into a developed high income economy by the year 2020.
Like Australia, which weathered the storm of the global financial crisis last year, Malaysia is emerging slowly from the crisis and seeks to fast track growth through several programmes, he said.
These include the Government Transformation Programme, the Economic Transformation Programme, the Tenth Malaysia Plan and the National Key Economic Areas programme.
“Here, we welcome Australia to be a key participant of our plan to transform the country into a developed high income economy by the year 2020, Najib said at a luncheon for Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at Seri Perdana here. His speech was read out by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Also present was the Prime Minister’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. Najib said: “I am especially excited that the Economic Transformation Programme is well underway, with the participation of several private companies, some foreign-based, in projects worth about US$10 billion in the areas of energy, retail, hospitality and education.”
Najib also said he believes Australia and Malaysia can work together to provide leadership to reclaim the agenda for peace and pragmatism, and marginalise the extremists, as he suggested during the recent UN General Assembly.
At that UN session, Najib had shared Malaysia’s experience in managing issues of diversity and suggested that moderates of all countries and religions “take back the centre” to marginalise the extremists.
He suggested that all countries encourage and support initiatives that promote mutual respect and peaceful co-existence and reject extremists, who divide the countries with issues that have in the past brought misery and hatred.
On education, Najib said he is confident that Australia will remain the most popular destination for tertiary education among Malaysians for years to come. — Bernama