Ashraf Abo Arafe
Celebrating her sixty second national day yesterday on the Nile bank , Mr Mohd Haniff Abd Rahman.. ambassador of Malaysia to Egypt..gave a speech to his guests, politicians, diplomates, media people, business men/woman as follows:
Bismillahirrahmanirahim,
Assalamualaikum Wrt Wbt, A Very Good Evening and Salam Sejahtera.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Alhamdulillah, with the grace of Allah SWT, we are able to gather today to celebrate Malaysia’s 62nd National Day which was observed on 31st August 2019 and the 56th Malaysia Day celebration which was observed on 16th September 2019. At the outset, on behalf of the Embassy of Malaysia in Cairo, I am pleased to extend our heartfelt gratitude and warmest welcome to all of you, our guests, for your kind presence to celebrate this auspicious occasion with us this evening.
2. I am personally honoured to warmly welcome, His Excellency Hany Selim, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt, representing the Government of Egypt for gracing our event today, His Excellency Mr Alsayed Mahmoud Ahmed Hussein Al Sharif, First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and His Eminent Syeikh Soleh Abbas Jum’ah Soleh, Deputy of Al Azhar As Sharif. I am also honoured with the presence of Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Amirudin Shari, Dato’ Menteri Besar Selangor and his delegation who is on a working visit to Egypt. It is indeed a pleasure to host fellow Malaysians, distinguished guests and friends of Malaysia this evening to commemorate this joyous occasion.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
3. Since Malaysia gained independence 62 years ago, we have grown into a prosperous and vibrant nation. We have managed to turn vision into reality and challenges into opportunities and steered our nation towards peace and prosperity in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi culture Malaysia. We are thankful to Allah SWT as we celebrate these double auspicious occasions for the blessings HE has bestowed upon us. As a young nation, we had to prove time and again to ourselves and the world that we had the tenacity, capability and goodwill to pull together and rise to the challenges. We have endured and overcame many obstacles during our nation building process but we persevered and remained steadfast in facing the future with confidence, humility and integrity, determined to deepen and strengthen our unity and prosperity at home while contributing towards regional and international peace, security and development.
4. As a responsible member of the international community, Malaysia continues to pursue an independent, principled and pragmatic foreign policy, founded on the values of peace, humanity, justice and equality. Malaysia also believes in maintaining friendly relations with all countries and peaceful resolution of disputes based on international law and norms.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
5. Bilateral ties between Malaysia and Egypt which began as early as the 1930s remains close, warm and friendly with cooperation in the economic area and trade, investment, higher education, security cooperation and religious affairs due to our shared common values which bind us together despite several challenges.
6. Egypt remains our largest trading partner in North Africa with an annual trade volume of USD500 million. In terms of commodity trade, Egypt has also been among the largest importers of palm oil products from Malaysia. Due to the global slowdown precipitated by the trade wars and other geopolitical realities, Malaysia has embarked on reviewing its New Economic Policy (NEP) and the New Economic Model (NEM) in order to appraise their relevance and continues to evaluating existing policies, and formulating new affirmative policies, for the development of the overall economic plan to spearhead national development post 2020.
7. Our national oil and gas company, PETRONAS, has made significant contribution in terms of investment in Egypt with investment amounting to USD8.61 billion. Additionally, we are also pleased to see our national car maker PROTON relaunching its models in Egypt.
8. Cognizant of the positive economic developments in Egypt and in our pursuit to engage in Egypt’s economic reform programmes and potentials, Malaysia is keen for its companies to expand their business activities in Egypt, including participation in the various development projects in Egypt such as in the building and management of airports, infrastructure, oil and gas industry and investments in the economic zones.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
9. Malaysia remains committed to share its expertise, experience and technical know-how through the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) with Egypt. To date, a total of 691 officials from Egypt had participated in various short-term MTCP courses with 17 Egyptian officials attending various courses in Malaysia until August this year. Likewise, a total of 44 Malaysian officials from various Islamic Affairs agencies had attended various training courses in Egypt in 2018. In 2019, 17 Islamic agencies officials attended several courses offered by Egypt.
10. Education continues to be one of the key components of Malaysia-Egypt bilateral relations. As of June 2019, there are 11,600 Malaysian students pursuing their tertiary education at various universities across Egypt while 2,100 Egyptian students are currently studying in Malaysia. To check this imbalance, we like to encourage more Egyptian students to pursue their studies in Malaysia. Not only does Malaysia offer a world class education system and English speaking environment, but most universities have twinning programs with western universities, thus international students are exposed to amazing customs, different traditions and numerous cuisines.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
11. Malaysia recently launched the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign with the tagline ‘Visit Truly Asia Malaysia’. Visit Malaysia 2020 which focuses on ecotourism, arts and culture brings out the best of what Malaysia has to offer to the world in a single, event-packed year. We welcome visitors from all around the world especially from Egypt to experience the uniqueness and beauty of Malaysia’s ecotourism attractions including our rainforests, mountains, islands and beaches and our diverse culture, arts, heritage and history. In 2018, Malaysia welcomed a total of 25.8 million international tourists. The government has set a target of 30 million tourist arrivals during Visit Malaysia 2020 and RM100 billion in tourist receipts.
12. Before I end, on behalf of all Malaysians, we pray to Allah SWT to bless the Arab Republic of Egypt, its leaders and its people with peace, prosperity and success.
13. With that note, I thank you once again for joining us to celebrate our 62nd National Day and 56th Malaysia Day celebration today.
Thank you.
