PM WANTS TO "WALK FASTER AND FURTHER" IN DEVELOPING TIES WITH CHINA

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
said he wants to "walk faster and further" in developing Malaysia's bilateral
relations with China.

He said Beijing ranked very high in terms of Kuala Lumpur's foreign policy
consideration and his recent visit, the first outside Asean after taking over
the Prime Minister's post, underscored the strategic importance of China to
Malaysia.

In the context of his aim to "walk faster and further", Najib said he wanted
to see more Chinese visiting Malaysia so that Malaysia would be better known to
them.

Najib's recent visit to China marked the 35th anniversary of diplomatic ties
with that country. Malaysia's second Prime Minister and Najib's father, the late
Abdul Razak visited China in 1974 and made Malaysia the first Asean country
to establish diplomatic ties with the republic.

"It is not just following in the footsteps (of my father).I want to walk
faster and further (in developing Malaysia-China ties)," he said in an interview
with China's CCTV's "Toptalk" show which was aired by the Astro Awani television
channel here Tuesday night.

Najib said China had developed by leaps and bounds and its transformation
in a short span of time was truly remarkable.

"I would like to see the relations getting even stronger and
deeper...taking advantages of different kind of modalities, for example the
joint venture between Petronas and China's National Oil Company in Sudan. That
is a good modality for others to follow suit," he said.

Najib said China could also look into using Malaysia as a production base
or even as a marketing outlet as Malaysia possessed its own advantages.

In the context of China-Asean, Najib said that greater trade and more free
flow of services and goods would create more wealth which would benefit Asean
which has a market of some 570 million people as well as China.

On leading the country as a prime minister, Najib, who has helmed various
ministries before becoming deputy prime minister and prime minister, said that
there was a big gap between being a minister and deputy prime minister and gap
between the top two posts was even bigger.


On the global recession, Najib said that Malaysians had adjusted to the
current scenario mainly because it had not impacted so much on Malaysia compared
to many other countries.

He said this was partly due to the strong banking system in the country with
ample liqudity and at the same time, commodity prices such as that of palm oil
was also recovering on the global market.

He said the people did not blame the government on the current economic
situation because they knew it was caused by external factors.

They also expected the economy to recover because the government had
introduced two stimulus packages, he said.

On his 1Malaysia blog, Najib said he introduced the medium as he needed to
speak the language of the new generation because this generation largely
communicated through the cyberspace.


Replying to a question on 1Malaysia, Najib said his dream was of one people,
one nation.

"It is a journey like everything else but at least there is an idea where we
are heading and the people sense that there is a direction. Of course this
cannot happen overnight," he said.

To another question on his assesment what kind of politician he is, Najib
said he would like to see himself as a leader who had certain beliefs and who
had ideas on where the country and the people were heading and a leader with
the ability to get things done.

"I wanted to be known as a leader who is respected and loved by the
people, not a leader feared by the people.I want them to feel in their heart.I
am there to look after their welfare.I want to be known as the people's prime
minister. But only time will tell," he said.

--BERNAMA