00:00And in fact I told him as a Nengite, we know about the set up in Bathurst, the Air Force,
00:07the long-standing relations since the Second World War. And then I met him, we
00:17did a fruitful engagement in Melbourne and I found him to be extremely cordial,
00:24supportive and more so very businesslike in his relations. He wants results next
00:32week if not tomorrow. So I think we did discuss a number of issues. First of
00:39course enhancing the bilateral relations from strategic towards comprehensive
00:44strategic partnership which we were exploring both with Malaysia and ASEAN.
00:50And then students exchange, we have benefited from these exchanges in the
00:58past. There are New Zealand students in Malaysia but also increasing number and we
01:05have asked him to facilitate the possibility of getting more students to
01:10New Zealand, particularly the postgraduate, in new areas where they
01:15have shown to be have the expertise including energy transition and of
01:23course food technology. And then we both agreed in this bilateral session that
01:33we had to enhance collaboration, trade, investments, in research, particularly all
01:42areas including halal industry. And it is, we did acknowledge the fact that it is
01:49quite unfortunate that with so much potential and such a great relationship
01:56that we have had for decades if not for nearly a century, we're not able to take
02:04measures to enhance this sort of collaboration. So I therefore have, we'll
02:12start having a cabinet meeting tomorrow and to use his advice and experience,
02:19things have to be done fast and we will certainly take it up. And may I again
02:24thank you very much Prime Minister Luk Song for this visit and we are fortunate
02:31to have you and your delegation and we look forward to a stronger bond and
02:37friendship both between Malaysia and New Zealand and also at the personal level.
02:42Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Malaysia is one of our oldest friends in Asia. We
02:47have a warm and a deep relationship but I wanted to come here in my first year
02:51in office because there is room for us to do so much more together, much much
02:56more. And with our overall strategic partnership, Prime Minister Anwar and I
03:00have today agreed to inject more momentum into our collaboration and
03:04we're expanding our defence cooperation including by deploying one of our New
03:09Zealand Air Force new P-8 Poseidons to Butterworth to exercise together. We've
03:14agreed new cooperation and enhanced efforts on transnational crime,
03:18counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism. We've agreed to expand our
03:23trade by increasing the value of our two-way trade by 50% by 2030 and
03:27tackling the non-tariff barriers that exist between our two countries and
03:32impede the flow particularly of our primary products both ways. We're working
03:36on e-certification and new customs cooperation to smooth flows at the
03:40border and we've talked a lot more about what we can do to strengthen our
03:43education links and our youth exchanges so that the next generation of Kiwis and
03:48Malaysians have that same close relationship that we enjoy today.
03:51Prime Minister, I do want to acknowledge Malaysia's incredible growth story. It's
03:55an extraordinary story that your government is committed to advancing.
03:59There's much that New Zealand can learn from you and your exceptional success
04:04attracting foreign investment is something that I look forward to and
04:07have enjoyed discussing with you today as well. That's also why we have the
04:11leaders of 17 of New Zealand's biggest businesses that have joined me on this
04:14delegation over the next two days. They want to support Malaysia and its success
04:19and our two countries partner together for a better future so that we can raise
04:23prosperity for both of our peoples in both of our great countries. Our
04:27companies here are also to explore opportunities, market opportunities in
04:30this market and Malaysia has long been a top-ten export market for New Zealand
04:35and we feel lucky that you like our nutritious and safe products which as I
04:40said to the Prime Minister are infinitely better than the Australian products but
04:44we then decided not to have a diplomatic incident and moved on very quickly but
04:49we've got a diverse range of businesses here today in Malaysia and we think we
04:53can offer you so much more in sectors like tourism and education where we
04:56want to build even greater links between our people which give us those
04:59people-to-people bonds are so important. So Prime Minister, can I just say
05:03again thank you so much for your generosity, thank you for your personal
05:06leadership, thank you for the friendship and I look forward to it continuing to
05:10deepen and strengthen at a country-to-country level but also
05:13between us at a personal level as well. So again thank you so much for your time,
05:16appreciate it.
05:19Thank you. If there are no questions, thank you very much.
05:25Can we have the first question? Yes.
05:29Good morning Prime Minister Laksan.
05:31Good morning.
05:33Nice to meet you.
05:35If I can ask one question each for both of you.
05:37How do you see Prime Minister Laksan's visit to Malaysia to further strengthen bilateral
05:44bilateral trade between Malaysia and New Zealand?
05:48And for Prime Minister Laksan,
05:50how can both countries strengthen tourism ties and encourage more people-to-people exchanges?
05:56Right, I mean the fact that the new Prime Minister of New Zealand
06:02chooses to visit us in his first year in office shows his personal commitment and
06:10New Zealand's commitment to attempt to enhance relations and we discussed this
06:19is a comprehensive arrangement in the sense that goes just beyond diplomatic
06:25engagement to get us to understand some issues particularly affecting the region,
06:32I mean the South China Sea was raised, an issue of Russian invasion of Ukraine and
06:38our position vis-à-vis the atrocities committed in Gaza and so there's an
06:44opportunity to engage and understand but more important in terms of both
06:48bilateral relations is the issue of trade, potential investments, tourism, education
06:54and I think the fact that the Prime Minister himself is here and shows that
06:59sort of strong commitment would certainly go well for both countries in
07:03terms of enhancing these collaborative efforts and the trade and investments.
07:08Yeah and it's a real honor to be here, I'm the first New Zealand Prime Minister to be here since
07:122015 and the reason is because I love Malaysia, it's a fantastic country, it's got so much
07:18potential and we are so close because we've got these historical ties that go way back
07:23over many many decades but the Prime Minister and I both want to make sure that the relationship
07:27is set up so in the subsequent decades you know young Malaysians and young Kiwis are
07:32actually building connections with each other so the relationship in 10 and 20 and 30 years
07:37time is in good heart as well. I agree with you, I think tourism and education are really the ways
07:42in which we build those initial people-to-people connections when you go visit a country or when
07:47you go study in a country and we've had many New Zealanders studying in Malaysia, we've had many
07:52Malaysians study in New Zealand over the decades, you get an understanding of each other and your
07:56societies and the cultures that are different but the values that are often very much the same
08:01and that's the opportunity for us to then build out from those people-to-people connections
08:05flows of trade and capital and investment but none of that comes if you don't have those
08:10people-to-people connections at the foundation so look there's a lot more that we can be doing
08:14on tourism, we talked a lot about what we could do on education, obviously you'd be well aware of
08:19the Colombo Plan which was so instrumental and we had so many great Malaysians come to New Zealand
08:25and study and then come back and build the country and I think we've got to think about how we
08:30continue to invest in both those education and tourism going forward. Thank you.
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