Speech by HE Dato? S. Thanarajasingam
Ambassador of Malaysia to France at the
Prize Giving Event ? Malaysia Invitational
Date : 1 June 2007
Venue : Apremont Golf Course
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening,
Let me begin by conveying my deep appreciation to the organizers, in particular Ms. Adlina Borhan and Mr. Zainuddin Mohammed, for giving me the honour to present the prizes to the winners of the ?Malaysia Invitational? golf event this evening.
2. On the outset, I wish to thank all of you in participating and supporting this event organized by Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines. Indeed, as you yourself had found out, the Apremont Golf Course is very beautiful as well as challenging. I hope you don?t feel deterred or depressed if you didn?t do well in the tournament today. In the golf fraternity there is a saying that goes, ?No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse?.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
3. This initiative by Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines are exceptionally timely because this year, Malaysia celebrates its 50 years of independence. To commemorate this event, Malaysia is also organizing Visit Malaysia Year, which runs through 2007 until 2008. I do hope that those of you here who have not visited Malaysia will avail of the fantastic opportunities catering to visitors from all over the world to Malaysia. Our national aim is to achieve 20.1 million visitors for the country in 2007. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Malaysia-France diplomatic relations.
4. As you are aware, Malaysia is a modern, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country, blessed with natural beauty and natural resources. Apart from that, there are more than 250 golf courses in the country within Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, including by the beach in Langkawi, or up on the highlands of Borneo or within the jungle and forest of tropical Malaysia.
5. As you are also aware, the World Amateur Golf Championship (WAITGC) is held annually in Malaysia as part of our promotional efforts to push golfing in Malaysia. Currently, Malaysia is also developing a package of golf and spa activities which we hope would spur our tourism industry.
6. Given that most business dealings and important decisions can be made at the golf courses, I wish to invite corporate business leaders and travelers to use Malaysia to conduct their business meetings and at the same time play golf at the various golf courses in Malaysia.
7. In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to convey our deep appreciation to the golf operators and golf event organizers in France such as ?Golf In?, and ?Parcour Voyages? for their dedication and continued promotion of the pro-am tournaments in Malaysia, which is already running for three years now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
8. I do hope that this timely and important collaboration between Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines will contribute towards our overall thrust to develop closer links between the people of Malaysia and France.
9. With these words, let me again wish my deepest congratulations and my appreciation to everybody for your active participation in the tournament.