ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND MARY McALEESE AT the Petronas Towers
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND MARY McALEESE AT the Petronas Towers and viewing of ‘Future Cities’
Datuk Dr Mohamad Arif Nun Dr Shafiq Students of the Multimedia University Distinguished Guests
I have just completed a wonderful tour of this hugely impressive complex. I am grateful to the Chairman and Chief Executive of Petronas for hosting my visit here and giving me an insight into their company’s operations and its vision for the future.
It is appropriate that we should highlight Ireland’s technological affinities with Malaysia here in the Petronas Towers, which constitute a powerful symbol of this country’s 21st century ambitions. The ‘Future Cities’ project explores these affinities and I congratulate Dr Shafiq and his team at ANB Studios for the impressive work they have done in showcasing our two very different, very dynamic and exciting capital cities.
A huge percentage of our two-way trade consists of products of the new economy, in which both Ireland and Malaysia now specialise. I am delighted to be accompanied in Malaysia by representatives of prominent Irish companies from this key sector of our economy.
We also share high ambitions for the future. In Ireland, we acknowledge that the successful strategies responsible for our rapid advancement during the 1990s may no longer suffice as new competitive forces are emerging all the time. We know well that we can only secure the future by effectively responding to the ever-changing challenges of the emerging knowledge economy.
Our education system has been the key to our success and will continue to be. Its strength and development is an essential bridge to the successful future we want for ourselves. Science Foundation Ireland has been established with a mandate to channel significant funding into advanced research so that Ireland can be a leading centre of innovation and creativity, especially in Information and Communication Technologies and bio-technology. Our aim is to attract to Ireland world-class researchers from all over the globe, and to strongly encourage the advanced economic activity their ideas can generate.
It is a particular pleasure to meet with prize-winning students from the Multimedia discipline. You belong to a growing international community of scholars and researchers that is connected as never before in human history. Your work transcends so many of the old boundaries of history and geography helping the flow of wisdom and experience to go where it will unimpeded by yesterday’s barricades and impediments to progress. I hope that maybe some of those now being awarded prizes will go on to develop productive links with Irish institutions and with our community of researchers, bringing partnership and prosperity to both our peoples.
I hope too that the connections between the Multimedia Supercorridor and equivalent bodies in Ireland will strengthen and flourish. Success in today’s economy demands more smart partnerships so as to operate effectively in an intensely competitive global business environment. In this context, an enhanced partnership between Ireland and Malaysia to avail of the manifold opportunities of the k-economy makes perfect sense. We are two successful and confident young nations, beginning possibly for the first time in our histories to get a glimpse of what we are truly capable of achieving as we harness the brainpower of our people and catch the rising tide of global commerce. We know instinctively that our future lies in developing comfortable, trusting, relationships with partners who share our vision and our values for a peaceful world where respectful partnership is the key to prosperity
Thank You.