President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of March 21 with Datuk Norazman Bin Hamidun, chairman of Malaysia's HMS Oil & Gas Sdn Bhd. The president recognized the increasingly frequent interaction between the two countries and urged Malaysia to help Taiwan join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
In remarks, President Ma commented that Datuk Norazman is an influential business leader in Malaysia who has had great success running energy and petrochemical enterprises. The president said that Datuk Norazman has used his wide network of personal connections to help Taiwanese businesses to invest in Malaysia or come on fact-finding missions. President Ma said he hopes that this visit to Taiwan will promote investment and cooperation between companies of the two sides, and will expand and broaden markets for Taiwanese enterprises in Southeast Asia.
The president further stated that among Taiwan's trading partners, Malaysia has been one of the fastest growing economies. Trade between the two nations last year reached US$16.28 billion, with each side's imports and exports at around US$8.1 billion. These figures represent trade growth of 13% from the previous year, he said, adding that each country is the other's eighth largest trading partner. And over the past decade, the president stated, Taiwan's exports to Malaysia have grown nearly US$5 billion, while Malaysia's exports to Taiwan have increased about US$3.4 billion. As for investment, he remarked, as of the end of October 2013, Taiwan's total investments in Malaysia stood at US$11.6 billion, making Taiwan the fourth largest source of foreign investments in that nation.
As for people-to-people relations, the president said, Malaysian tourists made 390,000 visits to Taiwan last year, while the number of visits to Malaysia by Taiwanese stood at 230,000, with both figures up between 15-17% from the previous year. This shows that interaction between the public of the two nations is becoming more frequent, he commented. At the same time, the president noted, over 10,000 students from Malaysia are presently studying in Taiwan and 4,000 Malaysian students came to Taiwan to study last year. Nearly 50,000 Malaysian nationals who studied here continue to live here, he stated, which is the second largest contingent of Malaysian graduates living overseas, after that in mainland China. President Ma also expressed hope that the two countries will be able to sign a youth working holiday agreement as soon as possible in order to add further depth to interaction among young people from Taiwan and Malaysia.
President Ma then discussed the issue of Taiwan's participation in economic integration within the Asia-Pacific region. He stated that Taiwan this year will create conditions favorable for it to join the TPP and the RCEP as soon as possible. The members of these two trade blocs account for 34% and 57% of Taiwan's total external trade, respectively, with the aggregate value of trade standing at US$52.5 billion, he said. President Ma emphasized the importance to Taiwan of joining the TPP and the RCEP. He pointed out that Malaysia has considerable influence in ASEAN and is also a member of both the RCEP and the TPP. Consequently, Taiwan's Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and Malaysia's Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute jointly researched the feasibility of the two nations signing an economic cooperation agreement (ECA), and just one day earlier, he said, the two think tanks released their research, the results of which indicated that the signing of an ECA would expand trade and investment relations and would be conducive to the economic interests of both countries.
President Ma also emphasized that Taiwan has been actively working in recent years to be a "provider of humanitarian aid" in the international community. He said that as soon as news broke of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on March 8, Taiwan dispatched military aircraft and vessels to participate in the search and rescue effort. The president acknowledged that the efforts so far have been fruitless. However, on behalf of the government and people of Taiwan, he expressed condolences to the families of those on the airplane. President Ma also pointed out that over the past six years Taiwan has spared no effort to provide assistance in the wake of international disasters. He specifically pointed to Taiwan's active work to provide aid after devastating earthquakes hit Haiti and Japan and a super typhoon ravaged parts of the Philippines. President Ma remarked that this is Taiwan's basic responsibility as a member of the international community.
Lastly, The president expressed hope that this visit will help to promote economic and trade dealings between the two countries and will also generate a major step forward in bilateral friendship.
Joining Datuk Norazman was HMS Oil & Gas Consultant Tan Sri Tan Kean Soon.