Posted on June 25, 2013, Tuesday
SINGAPORE: Malaysia and Singapore can look forward to further strengthening their excellent ties by exploring new economic opportunites together, said outgoing Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore, Datuk Md Hussin Nayan.
Md Hussin said after three decades, both countries had reached this excellent level of relationship and going forward there were almost unlimited spheres where both could explore to further strengthen the ties.
He said this was made possible by the Malaysian government’s effort to develop Iskandar Malaysia, the closest point to Singapore.
“While Iskandar is important to Malaysia, it is also important to Singapore. Whatever experience we gain in strengthening our relations by working together to develop Iskandar, I think it would have a strong implication, for Malaysia at least in terms of developing the other four regional corridors,” he told Bernama here yesterday.
The four are Northern Corridor Economic Region, East Coast Economic Region, Sabah Development Corridor and Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy.
Md Hussin said both nations could enhance relations further by exploring opportunities in those areas, based in experience that both gained from working in Iskandar Malaysia. Md Hussin, 61, who had served as high commissioner to Singapore for the past four-and-a-half years, began his retirement in early June.
Sharing his views before leaving for home, Md Hussin said the most exciting time coincided with the efforts by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his Singaporean counterpart, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to improve our bilateral relations.
“We have resolved the Points of Agreement (POA) regarding the KTM land. In the process, we also managed to strengthen and enhance our relations at all levels – government-to-government, business and people-to-people,” he said.
Md Hussin said he was grateful to the government for the trust and to give him the opportunity to end his career on a successful note. During his tenure here, Md Hussin said he had been promoting all the five economic regions.
On concerns about Singapore being the single largest foreign investor in Iskandar, he said: “They were in a way valid, but those concerns should not be over-blown. This is because cross-border investment, trade, commercial, purchases of properties, activities involving services happen all over the world.
“If we were to restrict foreign capital from coming in, we are actually not opening opportunities for our own people to go abroad not to Singapore, also in Indonesia or other countries,” he said.
Touching on the cooperation between Singapore’s investment arm, Temasek Holdings, and Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which was made possible following the signing of the POA, Md Hussin said: “The economic projects are now on-going in Singapore and in Iskandar Malaysia.
“I am sure, based on the interests from both Temasik and Khazanah where they can cooperate not only in Malaysia but also venturing other parts of Asean,” he said.
Asked on his memorable moment in Singapore, Md Hussin said the most memorable was to be present at the signing of the POA, which marked the game-changer in bilateral ties between Malaysia and Singapore.
Going forward, he said: “We can only improve from now on, because the path set by Najib and Lee is quite clear to the policymakers, implementors as well as the private sectors.”
Md Hussin started his career 1976 as an assistant secretary for South-East Asian Division.
He has since served as ambassador in Australia, Bosnia, Vienna, Bangladesh and US. — Bernama
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