ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TO THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TO THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY OF MALAYSIA, ISTANA HOTEL
President of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia
President of the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland Honourable Ministers
Distinguished Guests
May I begin by thanking the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia and Enterprise Ireland for inviting me to address this afternoon’s event. I am pleased to see the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland represented by its President, Vice President and Chief Executive. It is encouraging to have so many Irish businesses represented here alongside Malaysian companies with an interest in Ireland. All of this augurs well for the further enrichment of the already fruitful business relationship between us. My thanks go to each and every one of you for taking time to be here and to use this gathering as yet another way of building the bridges of trust and respect across which the wheels of commerce roll between our two countries.
I am sure that the strength of the trading links between Ireland and Malaysia must come as a shock to many observers. They may find it hard to credit that last year Malaysia was Ireland’s third most important market outside of Europe, topped only by the US and Japan. They might be equally puzzled by the fact that only two European countries sold more products here during 2001 than Ireland did, or that trade between us actually rose by almost 20% in the teeth of last year’s major global downturn.
On the face of it, countries as distant as ours ought not be such substantial trading partners. Notwithstanding the distance factor, last year goods worth almost 6.5 billion Ringgit made their way between the Irish Sea and the Straits of Malacca. These impressive figures are a product of the unique international commercial environment that has evolved with such speed in the last decade with the removal of many erstwhile barriers and the freeing-up of trade. The great bulk of our mutual trade is now in the high technology category, which says a lot about the strengths of our contemporary economies.
This Malaysian-Irish connection is not confined to exchanges of imports and exports. There is also a good deal of investment. For example, an Ipoh-based company, Hovid, has recently established a pharmaceutical factory in an Irish-speaking part of County Donegal from where it will sell into markets throughout the European Union. Not to be outdone, the Kerry Group, a major food and agribusiness corporation from the Southwest of Ireland, with its roots in the rural cooperative movement of the late 19th century, returns the compliment by operating a substantial plant in Johore. This facility uses Malaysian raw materials such as palm oil to produce food ingredients for export throughout Asia.
Another Irish-Malaysian partnership, Ire-Tex, has operations in Penang and in China servicing the supply requirements of multinational producers. In the construction sector, the Malaysian company Peremba is the major shareholder in the Tipperary-based firm, Kentz, which has worldwide operations. The international wing of our national power company, ESB International, is involved in operating power plants at Port Dickson and Kulim and has formed a strategic partnership with the leading Malaysian concern, Sime Darby.
In this manner, commercial opportunities arising in European and Asian markets have created intriguing linkages between places as far afield as Kerry, Donegal, Ipoh, Johore, Tipperary, Kulim and Penang, thus demonstrating that success in today’s economic environment does not depend on a metropolitan location! It requires knowledge and crucially the entrepreneurial imagination to spot viable opportunities allied to the drive to bring them to fruition.
Other notable links have been forged across the miles that separate us. This year, some 250 young Malaysians will begin their medical studies in Ireland, thereby carving out new sets of affiliations with us that will last a lifetime. Many are students of the Penang Medical College, a unique Irish-Malaysian joint venture delivering world-class medical tuition in Penang. In recent years more than 100 Malaysian doctors have taken the membership examinations of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Such is the relationship the College has formed with Malaysia, that it now holds its examinations for candidates from all over the world in two centres - Dublin and Kuala Lumpur. In the field of accountancy and business, 400 students at the ABC College at Cheras study under the auspices of the Dublin Business School, which has been active in Malaysia since 1993.
What is it that has brought our countries together in this manner? Part of the reason is the parallel course of our recent development. Our economies are alike in having been shaped by the information revolution and the globalisation of trade. In today’s industrial climate, computer software developed in Ireland can be loaded on to PCs manufactured in Malaysia for export to China or Japan. Sales of advanced products know no geographical bounds. While we are not blind to the potential pitfalls of globalisation, Ireland and Malaysia have both been significant beneficiaries of this process. It has encouraged investment in our economies and facilitated the expansion of our trade.
While the traditional Irish speciality of food production is still very important to our economy, just as palm oil is for Malaysia, primary products are no longer a staple activity for us. Our two countries have acquired a high reputation in the Information and Communications Technologies sector and which last year accounted for more than 35% of Irish exports. Indeed, the value of computers exported from Ireland was equal to four times our sales of food items. In the process, Ireland has become a global leader in the export of computer software and a growing force in pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, a sector where our exports increased by almost 70% last year despite the severe difficulties in the global trading environment.
Malaysia and Ireland are united in our mutual dependence on trade. For both of us, the ability to find markets for our goods is an essential ingredient of national prosperity. A recent international survey ranked Ireland as the most fully-globalised country in the world in terms of its openness to trade, technology and investment. The substantial growth achieved by the Irish economy during the 1990s was export-driven to the point where overseas sales now account for 90% of our GDP. I know that this story of ours will be very familiar to Malaysian ears. It is your story too.
The 1990s was an extraordinary decade for Ireland, probably the most spectacularly successful in our history. Availing fully of the opportunities of the European Single Market, our people tasted the fruits of rapid growth and attendant prosperity. Traditional patterns of emigration were reversed as people from other lands flocked to Ireland in search of employment. From being one of the least remarkable economies in western Europe, we raced to the head of the pack with economic expansion at three or even four times the European average. In the year 2000, our national output grew by more than 11%. The numbers at work soared as unemployment fell to unprecedentedly low levels.
As output and productivity grew, our economic horizons expanded and we began to take a greater interest in opportunities arising in more distant markets. Irish trade with Asia has grown rapidly and more Irish companies have established a presence in this region. It is our view that the economic importance of Asia continues to increase. With a potential market of 500 million, the ASEAN Free Trade Area promises much. The trend towards greater East Asian economic cooperation offers almost limitless possibilities. For its part, Malaysia is well positioned to link in with the burgeoning Chinese economy.
Like other exporting countries, we have inevitably been affected by the current difficulties in the world economy, but we see bright prospects ahead especially in the expansion of our involvement with key partners in this part of the world.
Our two economies are also alike in the extent of our openness to foreign direct investment. During the 1990s foreign corporations invested heavily in Ireland, especially in Information and Communications Technologies and healthcare projects. The presence in both of our countries of leading edge companies such as Intel, Dell and Microsoft, underlines the fact that Malaysia and Ireland are both major regional hubs for the electronics industry.
The legacy of history has also helped shape our contemporary relationships. The fact that we both have English-speaking business cultures helps sustain working relationships. Irish companies looking for a base in Asia ought to regard Malaysia as an attractive location, given the quality of your infrastructure and your competitive cost structures. Likewise, Malaysian companies with an eye on expanding into the world’s largest marketplace, the European Union, would do well to examine the reasons why so many international companies have found Ireland, with its low corporation taxes and business friendly outlook, to be such an attractive and profitable European base.
We view Malaysia as a key economic partner. There is potential for the Irish business presence here to expand considerably and 11 of our companies attended the recent EU-Malaysia Partenariat in Kuala Lumpur, a level of participation way out of proportion to the size of our economy.
While no one can with confidence predict the future course of the world economy or spot the likely winners and losers, it does seem certain that leading edge countries of the 21st century will be those endowed with riches in knowledge and skills. For both of us, the road ahead leads towards a more knowledge-intensive production. We aspire to place Ireland at the forefront of future technological advancement and equip ourselves with a world class infrastructure relevant to the needs of a changing economy. The traditional strengths of our education system and our possession of the English language, which is now the prime international medium for science, technology and business, means that we are well positioned to cope with likely future shifts in the global business environment.
Our vision for Ireland’s future is mirrored in the admirable ambitions of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super-corridor.
While we have each come an enormous distance in a short space of time, the road to sustained national achievement is likely to prove more challenging than ever in a climate of rising competition. In the light of shifting trends in technology and investment, small economies like ours have no room for complacency. In order to secure our nation’s prosperity and sustain a socially-inclusive and cohesive nation, we must ensure that our system retains its cutting edge character. We want our people to be equipped with the creativity required for future success so that a greater portion of the world’s intellectual property will be of Irish origin. In pursuit of these ends, the Irish Government is investing heavily in research and development, in broadband infrastructure and in skills training.
I am delighted to be accompanied here this week by a significant business delegation including the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland, Monica Leech. The Irish and Malaysian Chambers of Commerce will be signing a cooperation agreement this afternoon, which will provide encouragement to Irish businesses to build additional links here.
In the global economy, Ireland and Malaysia are not intense competitors in most sectors. We have our own regional markets to sustain us. The realities of the new economy make it possible for us to be partners. We have a saying in Irish, ‘ní neart ach le céile’, ‘there is no strength like partnership’. There is another saying, ‘an té nach bhfuil láidir, ní foláir dó bheith glic’, ‘those who are not powerful need to be smart’. Put together, these Gaelic axioms offer a reasonable recipe for Irish-Malaysian business links: a profitable partnership between smart knowledge-rich societies at geographically opposite ends of an increasingly interdependent global economy. I understand that the Bahasa Malaysia version could be ‘Malaysia dan Ireland boleh’. Why not let this be our vision for Ireland and Malaysia? A sturdy platform already exists, composed of trade, investment and educational ties. It just needs to be enlarged and deepened.
Terima kasih banyak.
Go raibh maith agaibh.