WELCOMING REMARKS BY H.E. AMBASSADOR AINI ATAN AMBASSADOR OF MALAYSIA TO LAO PDR
62ND ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL DAY OF MALAYSIA RECEPTION
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE 86th MALAYSIA ARMED FORCES DAY
FRIDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER, 6.30 PM
LANDMARK MEKONG RIVERSIDE HOTEL
His Excellency Dr. Thansamay Kommasith,
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of the Lao PDR;
Her Excellency Mrs. Khamphao Ernthavanh,
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR;
Excellency Ministers, Vice-Ministers and Ambassadors, senior officials and members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished Guests, fellow Malaysians in the Lao PDR,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Sabaidee and Selamat Datang.
First of all, allow me to welcome all of you to the 62nd Anniversary of Malaysia’s National Day and the 86th Malaysian Armed Forces Day Reception.
This year Malaysia is celebrating its 62nd Anniversary of its Independence with the theme “Sayangi Malaysiaku:Malaysia Bersih or Love My Malaysia: A Clean Malaysia”. The theme clearly emphasizes on the importance of unity and patriotism, for the well-being and prosperity of the Nation. It is also a projection of high integrity of all Malaysians and by that, rejecting corruption.
Tonight’s reception is also to mark the 86th Malaysian Armed Forces Day, as we celebrate it annually on 16 September, which is also the Malaysia Day, to commemorate the establishment of Malaysia.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At this occasion, I wish to record our deepest sympathies to the flood victims in Laos, especially in the central and southern provinces. In a small way, Malaysia has made its contribution in the form of flying in humanitarian assisstance using Royal Military Aircraft yesterday, on behalf of AHA Centre from its depo in Subang.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This year also marked the 53rd Anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Malaysia and Lao PDR that was established on 1st July 1966. Since then, Malaysia and Lao PDR have consistently maintained a brotherly relationship based on trust, mutual respect, goodwill and understanding.
Malaysia launched our Malaysian Technical Cooperation programme in September 1980 and has extended the programmes and courses to Lao PDR officials since 1986. Since then, 1543 Lao PDR officials have participated in various programmes and courses offered under the MTCP ambit. For this year, 35 Lao officials have participated in various short courses under the MTCP as of August 2019.
Besides promoting the bilateral relations between the two countries, the Embassy of Malaysia in Vientiane is also focusing on promoting people to people relations.
For 2019, the Embassy, through the Tourism Malaysia Vientiane, has organised 6 Familiarization Trips or FamTrips and sent 12 tour operators and 9 media representatives to introduce Malaysia to them and help us in offering attractive tourism packages to the market here in Lao. Also, most recently, two most popular social bloggers from Lao were in Malaysia to enable them to experience Malaysia first-hand: i.e. by providing them with special fund - but they make their own arrangements on transportation and accommodation while traveling in Malaysia. This also goes to show the simplicity of making ones journey and vacation throughout the Malaysia - which they could later share with fellow Laotians.
For the first seven months of 2019, it was recorded 15,881 Laotians have travelled to Malaysia, an increase of 11.4% compared to last year.
In addition, the Embassy has also been actively engaging with local officials and people by arranging various sport activities. For instance, the Embassy had organized several friendly futsal matches with various government agencies throughout the year, amongst them are the ASEAN department, Department of Civil Aviation, Vientiane Traffic Police, the Diplomatic Service Bureau, TOKO Insurance and several Embassies just to name a few.
Also, as part of our community engagement, the Embassy is grateful that we could cooperate with the Vientiane Secondary School, to have student dancing troupe to perform Malaysian and Laotian dances today. This is also to recognize the potential of local talents.
In business also, Malaysia has always been encouraging and applying the policy of hiring locals: These could be seen in the hiring of so many locals in the Malaysian-owned Don Sahong Hydropower Project in Champasak, which only involved between two (2) to five (5) Malaysians at all time, and the rest are mostly locals. The same is also applied at Savannakhet Free Trade Zone by Savan Pacifica Development Co., Ltd. which is also operated by Malaysians. The same goes with Malaysian financial institutions operating in the Lao PDR, namely Public Bank, RHB Bank and Maybank.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would also like to take this opportunity to share with you that the Embassy of Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia Vientiane will be organizing a Malaysia Food and Travel Fair on 5 and 6 October 2019 at Vientiane Center from 10am till 8pm. There will be a variety of Malaysian food and drinks as well as travel packages to be promoted at the Fair. So please save the date and we hope to see everyone here at Vientiane Center to join us and make the event a success.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed had earlier this year launched the new Visit Malaysia Year 2020 logo and the official song was launched a week ago. Hence today, we wish to take this opportunity to launch the logo here in Vientiane. As you will see in a few minutes time, this logo is inspired by Malaysian Batik. The logo illustrates the unique flora and fauna as well as eco-adventures that Malaysia has to offer.
Before I end my speech and to do the toast, I would like to invite all of you to watch this special montage of our Visit Malaysia Year 2020, as prepared by the Tourism Malaysia.
[see montage]
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please join me for the toast:
For the health and prosperity of His Excellency Bounnhang Vorachith, President of the Lao PDR and The Royal Highness Al Sultan Abdullah, the Yang Dipertuan Agong of Malaysia and the peoples of the two countries.
In conclusion, I hope that all of you would enjoy tonight’s event and wish you “Selamat Menjamu Selera” or “Bon Apetit”.
Thank you.
END
*approximately 7.6 minutes