00:00Of course, it's a rare pleasure to welcome a great friend of Malaysia, Professor Muhammad Yunus,
00:06who is now a Chief Advisor during the transition years.
00:10He made remarkable progress in ensuring there is peace and security in the country
00:17and now continuing that collaboration to enhance relations,
00:24both investment trade, culture and education with Malaysia.
00:30He is known to this country for his indefatigable work to secure position and place
00:41and for the underprivileged and the poor, including microcredit and also education in the Bukhari University in Kedah.
00:51So we have exchanges with the team and I would like just to take note that the Foreign Minister and colleagues,
01:06we did probably one of the first official delegation to stop over in Dhaka to show our commitment to our friends
01:16to ensure that Bangladesh is a great country with enormous potential and a great friend of Malaysia
01:24who can secure peace and promote progress and development for their people.
01:30Bangalore is an important partner because your workers have been instrumental too in working together
01:39and contributing to our development.
01:41That is why I think the Home Affairs Minister with the Human Resource Minister have agreed on this multiple entry visa facility
01:53mainly to assist so that people, workers can go and meet their families and feel secure in their jobs.
02:00You have made some proposals and we have given priority particularly to assist the stranded workers.
02:14We have continued to have energy cooperation and, you know, with Petronas and with Axiata and the energy sector
02:22and the telecommunication sector and now we want to strengthen this into HALAL and STEM and research and semiconductor.
02:33And on the regional issues, of course, we are concerned with the burden placed on Bangladesh
02:42on having to cater for enormous numbers of Rohingya refugees and, therefore, to secure peace in Myanmar is, of course, a great priority
02:54and immediate humanitarian assistance for the sufferings, first the refugees, then the victims of earthquakes.
03:05And I commend the Bangladeshi authorities for taking the initiative in multilateral forums in New York, Qatar
03:16and here in Malaysia, foreign minister will coordinate a team with Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand
03:28and to visit Myanmar in the next few weeks to ensure that peace is attained and the atrocities on some ethnic minorities
03:44and the people of Myanmar can be amicably resolved.
03:49So, thank you again, my dear friend, on behalf of my family and the people of Malaysia, for your role, for your contribution
04:01and we wish you well.
04:07Thank you, Prime Minister.
04:09May I now invite the Honourable Chief Advisor to deliver his statement.
04:15Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for having us here.
04:19It's like being in second home, it's our second home, and we feel so close in many, many ways.
04:28Personally, for me, I have been visiting and working in Malaysia for many years,
04:34so that makes me very close to people over the years.
04:39And then, today, for many other reasons, we get closer and closer.
04:45Particularly, many Bangladeshi workers are working here.
04:48They send their income back to Bangladesh, and that gives them the sustainability for their lives in the family,
04:55sending their children to school, and have good education.
04:59And they're being treated very well as a friend, as someone, part of the family.
05:05It's not workers coming from outside, let them work.
05:09It's not like that.
05:10They're very, very happy to work here.
05:12So we wanted to thank Malaysia for hosting us so much of our people.
05:17And we hope this door will remain open and continue to become wider,
05:22so that we can host many other young people to come and work in Malaysia.
05:27And they learn a lot.
05:28They take this learning back home and start their own businesses and set up their own economic activity.
05:34So we are very grateful to Malaysia for doing that.
05:37One of the things that when we came to take the responsibility of the country as a government,
05:44just about a year back, in a circumstances which is uprising of the young people supported by general public,
05:54because of a regime which was killing people on the street for demonstrations,
06:04and also having misrule and destroying the institutions of the country completely.
06:10So that uprising brought a new government, and I was invited to head that government.
06:16And I was very happy as I was trying to find my way.
06:19Guess who shows up?
06:21My friend Anwar Ibrahim shows up to give support to us.
06:26It's a wonderful feeling to find a friend to coming up at the hour of need,
06:31when we're desperately looking for some support somewhere,
06:34because we had no idea which way we are moving.
06:37We are very happy to have that,
06:39and we've strengthened our resolve in making sure that Bangladesh goes in the right direction.
06:44We are very happy.
06:45We restored order in the country.
06:47We restored the economy.
06:49We restored institutions to function within just about a year.
06:55So now we are ready for election.
06:57So we'll be holding our election in coming February, middle of February,
07:01to elect a new government,
07:03so that we can go to the normal running of the country.
07:07So there we need lots of support,
07:09and we are looking forward to Malaysia's support.
07:12Always we bank to them.
07:13And you have just mentioned about the Rohingyas.
07:17This is a big problem for us.
07:19We are seeking help from Malaysia,
07:22particularly as a chair of the ASEAN group of countries.
07:26So we need all the help we can get.
07:30And Malaysia, as a good friend, we are looking for investment from Malaysia,
07:34and that's what we've been discussing.
07:36We are open for business.
07:37Bangladesh has a tremendous opportunity.
07:40It has its own human resources that we can offer,
07:45and also technology that we can offer in Bangladesh,
07:48so that you can invest in Bangladesh and sell your product to the rest of the world.
07:54So this is one we're hoping we'll get close relationship in the financial and investment issues in Bangladesh,
08:04widening up their opportunities,
08:07so that we build an economy which will be sustainable,
08:12which will be a high-growth economy.
08:14We are waiting for that.
08:15So today we are very happy.
08:17We have gone through a list of all the ideas and all the issues that we want to work together with Malaysia,
08:26both bilaterally and also multilaterally.
08:30So we are very happy.
08:31We want to thank the people of Malaysia for the support they have provided to us in Bangladesh.
08:38Thank you, Honourable Chief Advisor.
08:40Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
08:44we have now concluded our joint press conference.
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