GREAT HONOUR FOR THE COUNTRY - DR RAIS

From Khairdzir Yunus

TOKYO, April 21 (Bernama) -- The conferment of an honorary doctorate to
Najib Tun Razak by the Meiji University, here today was described by
Acting Foreign Minister Dr Rais Yatim as a very great honour given by
a university in Japan to a prime minister, particularly from Malaysia.

Rais said that according to the head of the university, the conferment was
made as Najib's leadership was in line with the growth and development
philosophy which he had initiated and which could be seen by the foreign
community.

"In addition, the university based the conferment on the potentials of
academic cooperation between Meiji (University) and Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) and at the same time they linked the leadership of the Prime
Minister to the academic potentials that can be achieved in the coming years,"
Rais, who is also the Information Communication and Culture Minister, told
reporters, here Tuesday.

"Thus, we take pride in the conferment and our students at the Meiji
University, for example, will feel inspired to work hard to show that we, from
Malaysia, are capable of pursuing studies in Japan and subsequently achieve
success, disciplined to develop a great work culture and subsequently fulfill
the demands of the Look East Policy created by Dr
Mahathir (Mohamad) more than 25 years ago," he said.

On the two meetings that Najib had with Japanese business and industry
leaders, here Tuesday, Rais said he could see that the Japanese industry leaders
were confident of the 1Malaysia concept and at the same time gave recognition to
the New Economic Model (NEM) propagated by the Prime Minister.

He said that they could understand directly the New Economic Model and
understood the direct link between the NEM and the 1Malaysia concept.

"I see that the Japanese industry leaders are interested in the various new
fields such as IT (information technology) that is under my ministry and the
sectors relating to MIDA (Malaysian Industrial Development Authority) of the
investment authorities in Malaysia and at the same time, several major banks
such as Sumitomo had expressed its desire to venture into new areas," he said.

"And during the question-and-answer session, we notice that they have great
respect on the way the Prime Minister responded to their questions and how
Malaysia had proven that in the past we did not ignore agreements that had been
signed," he said.

On the Look East Policy, Rais said the policy which was formulated more than
25 years ago was still relevant and it did not mean that it had not given
positive results.

"In fact, now we can state that about 1,500 experts had been trained and
around 15,000 people had received training in various forms," he added.

Rais is here to accompany Najib on his first official visit to Japan as the
Prime Minister, for four days beginning Sunday.

-- BERNAMA



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