India offers great opportunity for Malaysian businesses: Najib Read more: India offers great opportunity for Malaysian businesses: Najib

NEW DELHI -- India with its population of 1.2 billion people offers a great opportunity for Malaysian businesses, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

This is more so with the conclusion of the agreement on services and investment between Asean and India, he said. 

 "We can see India as a country whose economic growth rate has been so rapid. They also expect their growth rate can be raised further with the creation of a middle class with high purchasing power.  

 "So they will definitely look to Malaysia for tourism, education and medical tourism. It is certainly a bigger market for us," Najib told Malaysian journalists at the end of the Asean-India Commemorative Summit 2012 here today. 

 India's economy is expected to grow by 7.3 per cent next year, higher than the 6.5 per cent forecast for 2012. 

 Indian companies can also be invited to invest in Malaysia in sectors where they have the capability, such as pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and manufacturing, he said.  

Najib’s India Policy a Success at Home and Abroad

The Asean-India commemorative summit has ended with a free trade agreement (FTA) on services that Malaysia helped coordinate. This follows the earlier FTA on goods in 2009, and will lead to a huge jump in regional trade at a time of continuing global uncertainty.

In several ways, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's India policy has been a success. Whether it is strengthening trade ties with India or encouraging the Indian community within Malaysia itself to participate further in the development of our nation, Najib has won plaudits for successfully engaging with both.

Malaysia has strong historic and cultural linkages with India, and under Najib this has been given an impetus since his positive meetings with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2010.

As a result, Malaysia-India trade that was expected to hit RM45 billion in 2015 has already reached that milestone in 2012, three years early. Both countries have now revised their 2015 target to RM60 billion, which is an impressive achievement given that India's economy is growing at its slowest pace in a decade.

At home, the Prime Minister's engagement with the Indian community could well play a deciding role in the upcoming general election.

There are 1.9 million Indians in Malaysia, comprising 7.3 per cent of the population. They are the third largest ethnic group, after the Malays and Chinese.

PM: More visa centres to be opened in India

NEW DELHI: More visa centres will be opened in India to increase the number of visitors to Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

The Prime Minister said Malaysia wanted to make the issuance of visas in India easier, adding: “There are now five centres, and we hope to have more in the smaller cities.

“The smaller cities are not all that small. They are just small in the Indian context, but (to us) they are huge by any stretch of the imagination,” he told the Malaysian media delegation here yesterday.

“I will bring it up and the appropriate agencies will take action to expand the number of visa centres in India,” he said.

The five visa centres in India are currently located in New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Calcutta.

Malaysian companies were urged to tap into the emerging middle-class in India once the services and investments sectors between Asean and India were liberalised.

Najib: Malaysia to receive English teachers from India to improve language proficiency

Najib and Manmohan discussing issues at the Asean-India Commemorative Summit, India

 

NEW DELHI: Indian nationals may soon be teaching English in Malaysia, in a bid to help alleviate the shortage of English teachers in Malaysia and to improve proficiency of the language. 

 

"One of the suggestions I raised for the consideration of the Indian Prime Minister is for us to receive teachers in India who are fluent in English to teach our students in Malaysia.

"He welcomed the idea and will instruct the relevant ministry to hold discussions with the (Malaysian) Education Ministry to realise this," said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to the Malaysian media delegation after meeting his counterpart Manmohan Singh here.

Najib is in New Delhi to attend the two-day Asean-India Commemorative Summit, which celebrates 20 years of Asean-India relationship.

Najib said the move would enhance the Government's efforts to alleviate the shortage of English teachers and improve proficiency in the language.

Malaysia has a similar arrangement with the United States, where 75 American teachers are currently teaching English in Malaysia.

When asked how many Indian teachers would come to Malaysia, Najib said the Education Ministry would look into the details and discuss the matter with their Indian counterparts.

On another matter, Najib said more education roadshows would be held in India to promote Malaysia as a destination for tertiary education.

"They (India) send many of their students overseas, so maybe they can look at Malaysia as an alternative (destination) for quality education which is competitively priced," he said.

(Source: The Star Website)