PM: UAE TRADE TO INCREASE FIVEFOLD
Crown Prince tells Muhyiddin that ‘the sky is the limit’
THE bilateral trade and investment by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Malaysia is expected to increase in the near future. Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said this was agreed during a meeting with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also the UAE’s deputy supreme commander.
“Sheikh Mohamed emphasised two main sectors, trade and investment.
“His exact words were, ‘the sky is the limit’,” said Muhyiddin at a press conference with local media shortly before his return to Malaysia yesterday.
Muhyiddin said Mohamed had expressed his wish to increase the value of bilateral trade fivefold.
“Whatever the number (trade value) that we have, Sheikh Mohamed wants to multiply it five times more,” he said, adding that the amount of trade by the UAE in Malaysia was almost US$3 billion.
He said Mohamed regarded Malaysia highly as a good friend, with a level of friendship that could be described as “extraordinary”.
“Any decision made during our visit was based on the close ties between us.”
He said the Crown Prince expressed his wish to invest more in several sectors in Malaysia, particularly oil and gas, palm oil and digital education.
“We will study in detail and identify sectors that can attract investors from the UAE to come to Malaysia, such as oil and gas, food security, high technology, mechanical and electrical engineering, and digital economy.”
He stressed the importance of acting swiftly on this to revive Malaysia’s economy and create more jobs following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The education sector would also be given focus, he said, particularly in developing a more effective ecosystem to enable digital learning to take place.
This includes intensifying cooperation between universities and higher learning institutions and providing electronic devices to schoolchildren to create a more conducive learning landscape and better education infrastructure.
“I informed Sheikh Mohamed that we have six million (schoolgoing) students in Malaysia and we wanted to ensure that they can continue to receive education and provide them with digital devices.
“Before I could finish, the Crown Prince said ‘done’,” Muhyiddin said, adding that discussions with relevant ministries to get the ball rolling on this initiative would begin soon.
He said there was a need to focus on developing the ecosystem for digital education postCovid-19 pandemic, in line with Malaysia’s digital economy blueprint and Digital Malaysia initiative announced recently.
He said the Crown Prince expressed an interest in Malaysia’s Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), the government initiative to help small- and medium-scale enterprises following the adverse impact of Covid-19.
Three memoranda of understanding (MoU) were signed during his visit to the UAE.
The first, on the Establishment of the Food Security Diplomacy Cooperation, underlines both countries’ cooperation in food security diplomacy post-Covid-19, where both sides will mobilise efforts to establish a sustainable food security ecosystem.
Another MoU was inked on the establishment of the Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Chair at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
It seeks to boost Southeast Asian nations’ understanding of the contributions of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the formation and development of the UAE as well as the promotion of peace, stability and tolerance in West Asia.
The third is on the Cooperation in the Field of Training of Diplomats, inked between the Foreign Ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations and the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy here.
Muhyiddin described the visit as successful and effective in boosting the bilateral relationship between Malaysia and the UAE.
“Mohamed expressed his desire to see the ties between Malaysia and the UAE elevated to a higher level.”
He said he and the Crown Prince had agreed to oversee the progress of some of the initiatives so that they could benefit the people as soon as possible.
“There’s a lot of work to be done when we return to Malaysia.
“We will see if there is a need for me to set up a committee to look into this in great detail.”
During his visit, he met UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum at Zabel Palace, Dubai, on Wednesday.
He was in the UAE for a two-day working visit from March 9 to March 11.
He had visited Saudi Arabia from March 6 to 9 at the invitation of King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
He departed for Malaysia at 10.20am yesterday from the President Terminal, Abu Dhabi International Airport.
He was accompanied by his wife, Puan Sri Noorainee Abdul Rahman, and a small delegation.
Also at the airport to send them off were Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, UAE minister Sheikh Shakhbout and Malaysian ambassador to the UAE Mohd Tarid Sufian.
THE Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry (MAFI) is putting more programmes in motion after a year of successful initiatives despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said 2020 was nothing short of challenges, with each ministry shouldering the responsibility of weathering the adversity by taking measures and actions within their respective capacities.
Shortly after the Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced in March last year, consumers faced a shortage of food supplies and farmers had an excess production of fresh produce.
This prompted the ministry to establish ‘Pasar Segar Terkawal’ (PST) in 196 selected locations nationwide and use the e-commerce platform through strategic cooperation with companies like Shopee, Lazada, MyGrocer, AirAsia (OURSHOP/ OURFARM), Dropee and others.
“March 11 marked the one-year anniversary since I led the ministry, along with my deputies, Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah and Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi.
“It has been challenging for the three of us as the country was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the agro-food industry was facing huge difficulties, especially during the initial stage of the MCO.
“However, with the cooperation of the relevant quarters, we managed to ensure sufficient and stable supplies to the people despite the disruption to the flow of the supply chain, namely, production, distribution and retail process for agriculture products and food industry (due to the pandemic),” he said in an interview, adding that the agriculture and food industry sectors were allowed to operate as usual since the implementation of the MCO.
He said the ministry had since worked on achieving its goals, by establishing the Food Security Cabinet Committee (FSCC) chaired by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the first of such committees formed under the Perikatan Nasional government.
The committee is responsible for scrutinising issues related to food security and preparing the National Food Security Framework, which is drafted based on the latest food security concept published by Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
In increasing padi yield and earnings for farmers, he said the ministry had embarked on the development of the country’s padi land profiling with an overall size of 350,000ha to better formulate padi fertiliser subsidies and padi data management system called Smart Paddy.
“The ministry has also implemented the Large-scale Smart Padi Field Programme (Smart SBB) through public-private partnership involving 150,000ha land in the peninsula to boost production and increase farmers’ revenue.
“The government does not use public coffers for this initiative as the costs are borne by industry players that have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
“Smart SBB will help in ensuring a more systematic structure of the industry players, particularly in minimising and getting rid of the involvement of middlemen who have caused a huge earning gap, as well as improve the production and distribution of rice in the country.
“The implementation of Smart SBB will see changes to the padi and rice industry landscape as the government’s goal is in guaranteeing food security at all times.”
He said the ministry had boosted its distribution of Certified Padi Seeds (BPS) and set its ceiling price at RM35 per bag (20kg) to prevent manipulation of BPS and prices, with the National Farmers Organisation (Nafas) appointed as the sole distributor.
Such initiatives, he said, which were taken to keep sales of BPS and rice in check and prevent monopoly by suppliers, had benefited some 320,000 padi farmers in the peninsula.
Meanwhile, he said hill padi farming in Sabah and Sarawak had received a boost to allow biannual yield, through a RM350 million allocation under 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP), with RM159 million having been spent so far, while the remaining RM191 million was incorporated into the 12th Malaysia Plan.
To provide assistance and social protection for fishermen, the Selfemployed Social Security Scheme under the Social Security Organisation (Socso) was implemented, benefiting 42,000 people so far, while the monthly allowance (Elaun Sara Hidup) for fishermen was increased from RM250 to RM300.
Meanwhile, the allowance for freshwater fishermen was increased from RM200 to RM250, he said.
To reduce the cost of living, especially for the B40 income group in urban and suburban areas, he said the ministry had launched the Urban Farming (Kebuniti) initiative with an allocation of RM30 million.
He said Kebuniti had benefited 13,524 people and 632 communities and the programme would be continued this year with Kebuniti 2.0.