Ministers to meet on growth triangle
Ministers to meet on growth triangle
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are to meet later this month to plot strategies for stepping up growth in a triangle encompassing border regions of their countries, officials said yesterday.
The Dec. 16 ministerial talks would be held in Malaysia's northern Penang state to discuss expansion of cooperation in the trade and industry, investment, labor, energy, agriculture, fishery and tourism sectors in the so-called Northern Growth Triangle, officials said.
"Several more memoranda of understanding (MOUs) among the private sectors of the three countries for joint project development are to be signed during the meeting," an official said when releasing details of the session.
The ministerial meet, to be preceded by talks among businessmen and senior officials of the three countries, will be the fourth session since the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) was launched in July 1993.
Kuala Lumpur's delegation will be led by Daim Zainuddin, a former finance minister and now minister coordinating the growth triangle project for Malaysia.
Thai deputy premier Supachai Panitchpakdi and Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto will respectively represent the other two countries to the talks.
The inaugural tripartite meet was held in Malaysia's northern Langkawi island resort in July 1993 to launch the project, largely aimed at strengthening trade and economic links in the growth triangle.
The IMT-GT was also meant as a catalyst for the implementation of the 15-year ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) program launched in 1993 by the six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which also includes Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines.
More than 20 MOUs have been signed between the private sector in the IMT-GT region, in the field of telecommunication, power generation, agriculture, fisheries, trade and development in industrial estates, officials said.
The Manila-based Asian Development Bank, in concluding a recently study, had proposed 50 projects for the consideration of respective government and private sectors.
The IMT-GT covers four northern states of peninsular Malaysia - Kedah, Perak, Penang and Perlis - Thailand's five southern provinces -- Satun, Songkhla, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani -- and Indonesia's north Sumatra and Aceh provinces.