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.