Putrajaya – Malaysia and Timor-Leste are set to elevate bilateral relations by expanding the current co-operation and exploring untapped potentials in strategic fields in the two countries.
Malaysia also pledged its unwavering support for the inclusion of Timor-Leste in the Asean regional grouping, a membership that Timor-Leste is looking forward to.
These developments were the outcome of the talks between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao at Najib's office at the Perdana Putra building here today in conjunction with Gusmao's three-day official visit to Malaysia.
Najib, in his remarks on the meeting at a joint press conference, said there was tremendous scope and potential for the two countries to expand bilateral co-operation in many fields.
The two leaders agreed on the importance of encouraging the business communities of both countries to increase investments and take advantage of the existing opportunities in Malaysia and Timor-Leste.
Najib said Timor-Leste had invited Malaysia to further explore potentials in the country's infrastructure, oil and gas, healthcare, mining, tourism and agricultural fields. He said Gusmao was keen to have the Malaysian private sector participate in the development of Timor-Leste.
A business forum to be attended by some 200 Malaysian companies would be held tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur to enable Malaysia's private sector to explore the potentials in Timor-Leste, he said. "Via this business forum, there will be greater interest in the potentials of investing in Timor-Leste," he said.
Najib also said that Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd was pleased to look into the possibility of participating in the redevelopment of the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Timor-Leste.
Najib said Timor-Leste had also invited national oil corporation Petronas to have a fresh perspective of the potential in oil and gas exploration and development in that country.
He said Malaysia and Timor-Leste were confident that good trade and investment potentials could be harnessed by both countries and nurtured in the coming years. Trade between Malaysia and Timor Leste stood at US$21.2 million (RM69.4 million) last year.
Najib also said that Malaysia and Timor-Leste agreed to forge closer co-operation in capacity-building.
"We offered many courses under the auspices of the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme and the Malaysian Defence Cooperation Programme. We will continue to offer the possibility of capacity-building in many fields under both programmes," he said.
Najib said Timor-Leste supported Malaysia's bid for a seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Malaysia had submitted its candidature for non-permanent membership of the UNSC for the 2015-2016 term. Malaysia is so far the sole candidate from the Asia-Pacific group vying for the seat. Najib said Malaysia supported Timor-Leste's application to be a member of Asean.
Gusmao, in thanking Najib and Malaysia for supporting its proposed inclusion into the regional grouping, said: "We will do our best and continue to look forward to when we can be an Asean member".
He also extended his congratulations to Najib over Malaysia's role as the mediator for the peace process in the southern Philippines, which culminated in the signing of the historical Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 28 in Manila.
Earlier, Najib and Gusmao witnessed the signing of memoranda of understanding on co-operative development and co-operation between Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and the National University of Timor-Leste.
Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/newsindex.php?id=1026303