The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: Malaysia

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference in Kuala Lumpur – 22 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s press conference in Kuala Lumpur, held on Wednesday 22nd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am delighted that Jim Prior is here – he is the leader of an extremely high-powered business delegation here with me in Kuala Lumpur – and also that I have Richard Needham, the Minister for Trade, with me. Richard has worked long and hard to make sure that we are able to increase our exports and our trading relationship with Asia and he will be returning to Malaysia with a large business delegation in November to follow up the numerous openings that have been identified in various meetings today.

    I think there is no doubt that the trip has proved very fruitful with the signing this afternoon of five very important agreements. These involve potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of business for the United Kingdom. Overall at the moment business currently under discussion is worth at least a billion pounds over the forthcoming years and our current and continuing exports to Malaysia are estimated to support around 25,000 jobs. Today’s contracts of course should secure many more jobs in Britain in due course.

    I think it is worth remembering that South East Asia is one of the most rapidly-growing economies in the world and Malaysia, as a result of policies over many years, is in the forefront of that growth. We have doubled our exports to Malaysia over the last four years but I think we can and will do a good deal better.

    It is equally true to make the point that the trading relationship has expanded in the other direction with a very substantial growth of Malaysian exports to the United Kingdom.

    Within the Community, we will continue to fight very hard indeed for the vision that we have of a free, open, outward-looking Community and the relevance of that is that it will ensure that countries like Malaysia will have access to the Single Market which is worth around £350 billion even before enlargement.

    To perhaps give you a practical example in concrete terms, the Community provides a massive market for Malaysian products like the Proton car that I was able to have a look at this morning.

    I also had the opportunity of looking at the Connaught Bridge power station, a very impressive example of Rolls-Royce’s capabilities. Today, British Gas have signed an agreement for a joint venture for an even bigger power plant and the project overall is worth around £550 million. What staggered me was that the plant is expected to start producing power by the end of 1994 and that is very remarkable progress indeed – no wonder British Gas refer to it as “Project Maserati”.

    Our pursuit of business, of course, and our wider social and educational links inevitably go hand-in-hand. There are at the moment around 13,000 Malaysians studying in the United Kingdom and possibly a good deal more who have gone there privately where we don’t necessarily have an indication of the numbers. John Laings are planning to increase the number of students we can help by establishing a college of the University of London here in Kuala Lumpur and Laings are also about to construct twelve hospitals here so there is a substantial amount of work there as well.

    As we approach the end of my trip to Tokyo and Malaysia, I am absolutely certain that we were right in our decision to give greater priority to our policies relating to the Asia Pacific region. I think this trip alone demonstrates what that means in practice and what more can be achieved in the future.

    It was equally clear from my discussions this afternoon that there is a very wide range of international and bilateral issues that are of concern to both countries. In my discussions with Dr. Mahathir this afternoon, we spread very broadly our discussions and it was remarkable that we had so many areas of joint concern and interest. The primary purpose, however, of this meeting was to expand and make clear to everyone the sheer scale of the economic and trading relationship that exists between the United Kingdom and Malaysia and I will, if I may, ask Lord Prior, as leader of the business delegation, just to give his impressions of the trip and then we will be happy to take any questions you may have.

    LORD PRIOR:

    As most members of the British press will know, I am not given to sycophancy in my remarks about prime ministers but I would just like to say that I believe that the efforts made by the Prime Minister both here in Malaysia and in Japan as well and in a number of other places are an enormous help and example to British industry and I think you will find that all the industrialists who have been on both these really quite difficult tours are full of praise for the attitude of the Prime Minister and welcome enormously the efforts he, Richard Needham and others are making for British industry.

    The Prime Minister has mentioned a number of important projects and he has been, quite rightly, very conservative in the figures he has put on them. If I can just add a little to, for example, the airport, it is a British consortium which has been given the task of organising and carrying through this massive project which is a real prestige project in south-east Asia; it is the biggest single project which Malaysia has ever undertaken and which we hope will be a great credit to a nation which has made such marvellous progress in the last few years. That project, which will be carried out predominantly with Malaysian contractors and Malaysian labour but at the same time with project management and technical help from both British and Japan, will bring to Britain a large quantity of work, for example to my own company GEC Marconi it will bring at least 100 million pounds and probably more and the figure for Balfour Beatty and Trafalgar House Gannon [phonetic] will probably be in excess of something like £500 million so that alone is a very big project.

    The Prime Minister has already mentioned the two power station projects, one of which he opened this morning. Sir Desmond Pitcher of the North West Water. Board has a project that he would like to mention to you a little later on which again is a very big project and he has a press kit to hand out for those who would wish to have it.

    So altogether, Prime Minister, we think this has been a very successful tour from your point of view. You have opened a number of doors for us and it is up to British industry now to get their feet in so that they don’t close again and manage to get some very big orders. We think we will.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I will ask Sir Desmond Pitcher to take up Jim’s invitation and perhaps say a word on some other events that have occurred today.

    SIR DESMOND PITCHER:

    We formed a consortium with our Malaysian partners a few years ago to study the sewage problems in this country. We made a recommendation to the Government for a national sewage programme to provide sewage for 14 million people, which is roughly double the number of people who live in the north west of England. As a consequence of that, the Malaysian government this year have passed a special act to privatise all sewage activity and transfer responsibility of that to our company. We are in the final details of signing the so-called “Consortium Agreement” as a franchise agreement and we have to make a privatisation agreement. In effect, the capital investment for starters is 1.25 billion pounds. We have the contract for 28 years and by the time we have done the main construction work, we will have changed the whole dimension of sewage and environment in this country. We have done it of course with tremendous help from our Malaysian colleagues and more particularly all the money is coming from Malaysia with a small amount of investment in equity from our country.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Mike Webster, ITN):

    Prime Minister, if I could first ask you a question on the international stage, today President Clinton, like yourself, has given support to President Yeltsin in Russia. However, he added a proviso that he didn’t want to see President Yeltsin use force in order to put down his opponents. Do you make the same condition, despite your support for him, that he must keep the troops….

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think there are several points to be made. Yeltsin is the first, indeed the only leader in Russian history to be elected freely. He is carrying forward a reform process, he wants a properly elected parliament that actually can express the will of the people with clarity and with a fresh mandate.

    Since President Gorbachev gave them the chance some time ago, the Russian people have consistently acted to show that they believe in the reform programme; that is the reform programme that President Yeltsin is trying to carry forward.

    We have given consistent support to the reformers. At the time of the 1991 coup, it was Britain that denounced it first and made it clear we were on the side of reform. We have made it absolutely clear right the way through that we are on the side of the reform process and the reformers will need to operate by rule of law and with parliamentary sanction so I think it is our view that we want it to proceed peaceably but let there be no doubt whatsoever that the reform process is best likely to go ahead under President Yeltsin, that he has our support and we very much hope that that will be acknowledged by people throughout Russia and the process can continue.

    QUESTION (John Sergeant, BBC):

    But how likely do you think it is that President Yeltsin will be overthrown and that Russia will revert to totalitarian rule?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Consistently in the last few years the Russian people, when asked, have acted with very considerable maturity. I don’t think there is any conceivable doubt that given the chance they will continue to act with maturity and that does mean a democratic reform process so I both hope and believe that President Yeltsin will continue and will be able to carry that reform process forward.

    I not only believe that that is very much in the interest of the Russian people; I don’t have a shred of doubt that it is very much in the interest of the rest of the world to have a stable Russia settling down as a secure democracy not just for months but for years ahead, decades ahead. That is what all of us wish to see. I believe it is achievable but I believe now is the moment for the rest of the world to make it absolutely clear that they support the continuation of this reform process and they do not support any attempts illegally to knock it off course.

    QUESTION (Richard Bestick, Sky News):

    From your remarks at lunch-time today about the rearguard Soviets, it would seem that if Mr. Yeltsin isn’t successful you would be prepared to see a return to the Cold War rather than accept a dialogue with his successors.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think I have made it clear in the past, if I may refer back to the remarks I made about the potential coup some time. Britain didn’t sit back and consider what might happen if things went wrong; we were out there first making it clear that the reform process had to continue. That is the first prize for the rest of the world. Nobody should be in any doubt about that. It is clearly our policy that it is in everybody’s interests – Britain’s, the rest of the world’s, Russia’s – for there to be the maximum amount of support for those people who will carry on the reform process and I will rest my answer on that.

    QUESTION:

    When Lady Thatcher was here about two weeks ago, she said that the situations in Iraq and in Bosnia should be treated exactly in the same manner. How does your Administration see the difference between the two situations and should they be treated differently by your Administration?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I didn’t hear what may have been said on that occasion and I am not going to comment directly on remarks I didn’t myself hear and haven’t seen in context. I think I have learned over the last ten years or so that it is very unwise to do that.

    As far as Iraq is concerned, I think the whole world remains appalled at the behaviour of Saddam Hussein. Both in the north with the Kurds and in the south in the marshlands, his attitude continues to be repressive, dictatorial and wholly repugnant to the rest of the world.

    Insofar as the UNSCOM investigations are concerned, until and unless he actually removes these weapons of mass destruction, he cannot expect in any way the sanctions to be removed so our position on that has been perfectly clear.

    On Bosnia, I think it is right for me to say that everyone shares very hot feelings – very emotional feelings – about the dreadful circumstances that have arisen in Bosnia. We were the first country to put in troops on a large scale to help the humanitarian aid. It is certainly the view of the United Nations that without the British effort it could not have continued and many thousands of lives would have been lost. We have continued to do that. We have continued to seek a peaceful process. We believe a peaceful political settlement is desirable because it is more likely to be enduring and I think that is the prize everyone wishes to seek so in Iraq we sought peace, in Bosnia we seek peace but we have to determine the way to achieve it dependent upon the individual circumstances.

    QUESTION (Philip Johnstone, Daily Telegraph):

    Prime Minister, later today you are off to Monte Carlo to bang the drum on behalf of Manchester. How confident are you that the city can win the Olympics for the year 2000 and do you think China’s human rights record disqualifies Peking from holding the Games?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have always been concerned throughout the whole of this to promote the aims of Manchester rather than comment on the aims of other countries. I think Manchester’s bid is technically excellent. Manchester has the total support of the Government. I believe that were the Games to come to Manchester in the year 2000 they would be memorable Games matched against any we have seen in the past so I have no doubt about Manchester’s willingness or capability of producing the Games.

    As to whether they will win or not, we are now within a few hours of the 90-odd members actually making up their minds. I don’t know what individual motivations they will have in that decision. I can only say that on merit I think Manchester will be very hard to beat and I would be delighted to see them win.

    QUESTION:

    How do you see the US refusal to renegotiate the Blair House Accord reforms?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I believe if you have entered into an agreement you don’t re-open it and the European Community collectively and the United States reached an agreement on Blair House. The United Kingdom don’t want to re-open Blair House.

    QUESTION (John Craig, Daily Express):

    How is your morale at the end of the second leg of this trip? You have obviously had a lot of success with the business side of the trip over here but there are still some rumblings back home from what we hear. How is your morale tonight?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    My morale is very high, John.

    QUESTION (Reuters):

    Have you talked to President Yeltsin yet and do you intend to try before you take off tonight?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I haven’t talked to him yet. We have been in touch with Moscow but I haven’t spoken to President Yeltsin yet. I think it is very likely I will over the next few days but I have had meetings continually through today, they go through till late tonight, I will then be flying off later on this evening to Nice. I think it is unlikely I will speak to him before tomorrow but I have no doubt over the next few days I will.

    QUESTION (Colin Brown, The Independent):

    Will you be suggesting any initiative that world leaders can take in addition to giving vocal support to President Yeltsin and given that his Foreign Minister in Moscow called in all the G7 ambassadors is there anything that they are asking for in addition to support, for instance financial support?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No. The G7 ambassadors were called in so that it could be explained to them what President Yeltsin had in mind. It was a question not of asking for assistance but of passing on information.

    This is a matter that is going to be determined within Russia but I think the role of other countries around the world is to make it clear what they believe is the right thing to happen and we have done that and a large number of other countries have as well; I hope more will.

    QUESTION:

    Sir, you said earlier that the UK was not likely to allow a renegotiation of the Blair House Accord but France has managed to get the EC to open further discussion on the Blair House Accord. How does the UK feel about this?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is outside Blair House. It is not a question of renegotiating what was agreed at Blair House. It was agreed there are other areas outside Blair House that people can look at it but it isn’t a renegotiation of the agreement that was reached at Blair House.

    QUESTION (Stephen Cook, Financial Times):

    Dr. Mahathir made a very strong speech last night about Bosnia in particular. Were you surprised at the strength of Malaysia’s feeling on Bosnia and were you able to reassure him at all in your private discussions today or what was your feeling of the Malaysian policy today during your private discussions?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t think anyone can be surprised about the fact that people across the world have an emotional feeling about what is happening in Bosnia, that impact exists in the United Kingdom as well. Certainly, Dr. Mahathir and I discussed the matter and I think we both have a very clear understanding of each other’s position.

    QUESTION:

    On Bosnia, do you think that the ball is at the Bosnian Muslims’ feet now that the three factions have agreed to give them some kind of an outlet to the sea?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think an outlet to the sea is needed perhaps at Flotje [phonetic]. I don’t see immediately where else it would be. I think there will need to be an outlet to the sea in the negotiations but I think the responsibility for reaching a conclusion rests not just with the Muslims but of course with each of the groups. What we have seen over a number of occasions in the last few months is putative agreements that have been broken very shortly after they have been entered into. We need all sides to reach an agreement, they need to stick to the agreement.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Kuala Lumpur – 22 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in Kuala Lumpur, made on Wednesday 22nd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Honourable Ministers, Distinguished. Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am very grateful to the Minister of Finance, Anwar Ibrahim, for coming to this lunch today and for speaking and to so many of his Ministerial colleagues for accepting our invitation in what I know is a very busy Cabinet day for all of them,

    Before turning to matters close at hand, bilateral matters, trading matters, I think I should say something about events in Russia over the last 24 hours. Anwar, you spoke a moment ago about the collapse of communism, and what happens in Russia affects all of us because Russia stretches from central Europe, across Asia to the Pacific, because as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, Russia is involved in all the most critical international problems, whether it is the Middle East, Bosnia or Cambodia,

    The changes began in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev and they were carried into a new phase by Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia. They were remarkable changes, they generated hope and expectation far beyond Russia’s boundaries.

    But I do not think that we should be surprised that this immense transformation has proved erratic and difficult, it has demanded high courage from the reformers within Russia and steady nerves from their supporters on the outside.

    I believe those of us outside need to keep a clear view of what we are supporting and why we are supporting it. The United Kingdom wants to see democracy securely founded in Russia under a democratic constitution providing for the rule of law and the rights of the individual. We believe that authoritarian communist rule in the Soviet Union was both morally wrong and hugely damaging, it wasted the resources of a rich and proud nation and ruined its economy over many generations.

    In the referendum in April the people of Russia gave President Yeltsin a clear mandate to complete democratic reform. Under that mandate and of the first popularly elected President of Russia he has been seeking to bring in a new constitution. His political opponents, entrenched in a parliament elected under Soviet rule, have fought a rear guard action to block the people’s will and paralyse reform.

    President Yeltsin now intends to call parliamentary elections in December, leading to the adoption by a new parliament of a new constitution. His opponents are evidently not prepared to put their credentials to the test. I believe passionately that the Russian people should have the right to decide themselves, I believe this will be a vital step to underpin reform. I believe they should be allowed to elect a genuinely democratic and representative parliament and that is why I believe President Yeltsin is right, that is why I believe he deserves all our continuing support, and it was for that reason that earlier today I sent him a message making it clear that he continues to have the full and unqualified support of the United Kingdom.

    Russia, of course, is but one of the subjects I look forward to discussing with Dr Mahatir and his colleagues during the rest of this afternoon and this evening. We will have a busy agenda: developments in Asia; former Yugoslavia we shall certainly discuss; the Middle East; as well as the crucially important Uruguay Round negotiations. All of these matters are vital to all free democratic nations and will be the legitimate matter for our discussions this afternoon.

    But at lunchtime today in the presence of so many Ministers with economic responsibilities, and of so many leading British and Malaysian figures from the business world, I want to turn particularly to our longstanding and growing economic partnership.

    We share a belief, we British and Malaysians, a belief in free trade. We in Britain have worked for the completion within the European Community of the Single European Market. I think I can say without a shred of over-exaggeration that we in Britain are the leading free traders in Western Europe. We have worked assiduously for an outward looking, open and competitive European Community and we shall continue to do so.

    And here in Malaysia you with your partners have been progressing towards the ASEAN free trade area. Each of our countries has benefited from business which has boosted two-way trade between us to over 1.5 billion pounds each and every year, and for British investment in Malaysia to around 2 billion pounds. Both countries have been pioneers of privatisation within their own continents. Malaysia has pursued, it is continuing to pursue, that ambitious and exciting privatisation programme and I know that you plan to go even further.

    In Britain during the period of the last decade or so we have released 46 separate companies with a total value of 50 billion pounds into private ownership. Many of them in the public sector did not make profits and did not deliver much of a service, now they do make profits and they yield taxes towards the provision of communal services and I believe they deliver a far better service as well.

    And so we are seeing the benefits of better management, better services and increased profitability. And I make that point because no less than 7 of the businessmen accompanying me here today are the heads of former nationalised, now private sector companies British Aerospace, British Gas, Cable and Wireless, the National Grid Company, North West Water, PowerGen, Rolls Royce all highly successful competitive companies with a rising international reputation.

    North West Water, for example, took part in EPO in the world’s first water privatisation project.. The Rolls Royce industrial power group has completed the conversion of the Connaught Bridge Power Station which I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting this morning. And British Aerospace has been one of the companies helping to meet Malaysia’s need for defence equipment over many years. Other companies represented here today are equally effective. Bywater, with the Apamur [phon] Dam, has helped the national rural water supply scheme. I remember. Bywater, getting on for nearly a quarter of a century ago when I think I had the pleasure of agreeing almost one of the first banking loans they ever had, and if I had realised how good they would be and how they would have grown I would have agreed to that loan far more speedily and on far better terms than I did. Balfour Beatty and GEC have been building the Pergau Hydro Power Station and these two companies, with Trafalgar House and Gammon, are partners in the British/Japanese consortium on the new Kuala Lumpur international airport.

    Those are remarkable projects and yet these projects are just a part of the successful modern, growing, relationship, a relationship that has flourished and continues to flower as year succeeds year.

    But they are part also of something else as well, part also of a wider picture of dynamic economic growth in Asia, matched by a stronger political voice and widening influence in international affairs.

    Britain’s links with Asia are very old, they go back over 4 centuries. But it is not over the past that I think we should dwell, and even necessarily entirely the present, what we need to do is to look to the future rather than to the past and as we do so we are determined to strengthen and deepen our involvement in your region, our relationship politically and our relationship economically as well.

    I remarked yesterday on the pace of change in Malaysia in the 20 years or so since my first visit. I find it astonishing to contemplate the Malaysia I saw when I first came here in the 1970s and to see today the immense changes towards an industrial society that have been created during the period of those two decades, they are truly remarkable changes of which I believe Malaysia can be justly proud.

    But Britain too has changed during that period, through our membership of the European Community we have widened our economic base. Many overseas companies, rightly, see the United Kingdom as the most convenient and effective centre for the whole of their European operations. We have restructured our industry, the City of London has adopted the most sophisticated techniques to remain in the forefront of the world’s financial centres, we have become both more cosmopolitan and more competitive. And as we emerge from the recession that has engulfed so much of the western industrial world and many areas beyond it, as we emerge from that we find ourselves perhaps better placed for increased competitiveness than we have found ourselves for almost two decades.

    You will, I hope, here in Malaysia experience this competitiveness in your dealings with the companies represented here today, But I hope also that you will find that the values we respect are the same, and it is shared values, apart from shared interests in free trade, the shared values – integrity, a sense of responsibility, that basic underpinning of an attachment to democracy and the rule of law – those are elements of our twin relationship that have grown and continue to grow year upon year.

    I believe those are the essence of the partnership, quite apart from the mutual business interests that we share, those are the essence of the partnership and friendship between Britain and Malaysia that have enabled it to grow out of a colonial past into a modern industrial partnership.

    I am delighted therefore to be here today, I look forward to my discussions later today. I am delighted to have brought with me this remarkable delegation of senior businessmen, most of whom find already are by no means new to this market but are meeting many old friends with whom they have had a longstanding relationship. I wish them well in their bilateral discussions, I believe their mutual success is in the interests of Malaysia and in the interests of the United Kingdom and it is that mutual success and that mutual relationship that I hope for and that we must all work for, and I am delighted to have had the opportunity of being here today to express that thought to all of you.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Kuala Lumpur – 21 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech made in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday 21st September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Prime Minister, Mrs Mahatir, Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen.

    I think I speak for everyone this evening, Prime Minister, in thanking you for your hospitality here this evening, you are very kindly entertaining us this evening and it is an evening, I know, that many of us have looked forward to for a very long time. I do not propose to repay your kind hospitality by an over lengthy speech, but I will try to respond to some of the points you have made and make one or two other points that seem to me of importance in our bilateral relationship.

    You spoke a few moments ago in your remarks about the Uruguay Round about the vital importance of achieving a satisfactory settlement of the world trade talks. The United Kingdom have taken the view from the outset: that if we are to see the re-engendering of confidence in the world trade outlook there is no single event more likely to produce it than the widening of free trade and a satisfactory conclusion of the Uruguay Round.

    That is the position we have firmly and consistently maintained within the European Community and I know there have been some concerns over the difficulties between the United States and the European countries on the subject of agriculture. I think the meeting that concluded not all that many hours ago in Brussels has made it perfectly clear that the Blair House accords cannot be reopened, the Community negotiators are now going to return unfettered to continue their negotiations and I believe we remain on track for a satisfactory outcome to the Uruguay Round by 15 December this year.

    The prize of success in that round is very great but I think it has to be recognised by every participant in the round, from whatever part of the world that they come from, that the price of failure in that round would also potentially be very great indeed. It is in no-one’s interest to see that failure, no-one’s interest to see free trade begin to shrivel, no-one’s interest to see the dangers of protection and retaliation, all of which potentially could occur if we did not have a satisfactory outcome to the Uruguay Round. I can give you a total assurance about the position that the United Kingdom will adopt.

    Prime Minister, you also mentioned the very distressing problem of Bosnia, a problem I think that has touched the heart, I know, of Malaysia and has touched the heart of my country as well. I would say to you, Prime Minister, that I and my Cabinet feel as strongly about the wickedness and the intolerance that we see daily in Bosnia, and have for some time, as anyone else. We have taken over the last year or so a whole range of practical steps to assist that on many occasions have led, not just the West, but I think the whole world in the actions we have taken. We sent at a very early stage, before I think anyone else, a substantial number of British troops to Bosnia to make sure that the humanitarian aid was securely delivered. I think it is fair to say that if we had not taken that action a year or so ago there are many tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Bosnians alive today who would not have been alive but for the voluntary aid effort and the activities of the British troops there.

    We are seeking, by the convening of the London Conference, a satisfactory outcome that is not going to lead just to a short term cessation of fighting followed by a reignition of the conflict at a later stage, it is with the intention of avoiding the misery that would follow that outcome that we have been so determined to try and seek a satisfactory political settlement.

    We have looked repeatedly at what action can be taken bilaterally with the United Kingdom and Bosnia, multilaterally with our partners in the Community, and on a wider sphere through the United Nations and others, and I am delighted at the fact that Malaysia will also be sending a contingent to join us in the United Nations protection forces. I look forward to discussing this problem with you further in our discussions tomorrow.

    It seems to me this evening a long time since I first came to Malaysia. It was indeed in the early 1970s and I recall it very vividly. I remember visiting – though I can’t recall precisely where it was – a fish restaurant at a lakeside that had a remarkable marketing appeal; you ordered your fish, you sat there and they rowed out on the lake and they caught it. It had a strong marketing appeal for this reason: you ordered your fish, you then waited and you became very hungry; By the time the fish arrived, you really enjoyed it and after you had eaten it, by golly, you told everyone how good that meal was and I am unsurprised that that restaurant was packed out month after month after month.

    Later I came as Foreign Minister to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Tonight, I come for the first time as Prime Minister for us to have some bilateral discussions here in Kuala Lumpur and I. think one thing unites those visits across now more than 20 years; it is always a pleasure to step off the plane in Kuala Lumpur, to land among friends both old and new and to be in a particularly lovely country but one thing changes, one thing is always different – from one visit to the next at a truly breathtaking speed Malaysia changes. It may be a truism to say that Malaysia is one of the most dynamic countries in the world’s fastest-growing region but the point about truisms is that they do tend to be true and this makes Malaysia an invariably exciting country to visit.

    You, Prime Minister, have presided over a remarkable process of modernisation since you took the reins in 1981, a process that has seen manufacturing rise to two-thirds of your export earnings. You are well on the way to the target you set in your approach to Malaysia’s future “Vision 2020” and I look forward to seeing myself tomorrow one of the jewels in your industrial crown, the one you mentioned, the Proton car plant. I of course know its products already and I believe that the company sells more of its models in Britain than to any other country anywhere in the world.

    Of course, as any visitors to the great manufacturing areas of my own country can bear witness, there is often a heavy price to be paid for industrial growth but I believe Malaysia has succeeded in modernising without losing her charm and in fact quite the reverse, you are now attracting more tourists than ever; thousands of Britons come here for pleasure as well as for business; I come, I am delighted to say, for both and many of them like Prince and Princess Michael of Kent will now be following your example by taking a ride on the Eastern and Oriental Express.

    So the flow is two ways and just as Norma and I and Richard Needham, who is with us this evening, are accompanied by a team of eminent businessmen whom you have kindly invited to join you this evening, so Malaysian businessmen are ever-present and ever-welcome in the United Kingdom and so too – for you also touched upon this point – are your younger generation. We are proud and delighted that so many thousands of Malaysians are choosing to further their education and training in the United Kingdom. It gives us a unique part, I believe, to play in the building of your future and it means, I hope, that in that famous year 2020 British politicians and British businessmen will find themselves surrounded by old and good friends just as we do this evening.

    I hope those young Malaysians and the British friends they are making will grow up as strong supporters of a modern Commonwealth but the Commonwealth also has changed and Malaysia has been influential in that process of change. You have just played host to the Commonwealth Forestry Conference and I understand and am unsurprised to hear that it was a very great success. In a month’s time, you and I will join over 40 other friends in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Cyprus and five years from now Kuala Lumpur will play host to the friendliest of all international tournaments, the Commonwealth Games and yet the Commonwealth, in some curious fashion rather like the British constitution, has always been hard to define; you know it is there, you know its importance; it is not an alliance, it is not an economic community; it is not a political bloc; it is not a geographical entity. It is a good deal easier to say what the Commonwealth is not than actually to set out what the Commonwealth is and it may be baffling to outsiders but I think that you and I know the answer to that. It is above all a network of friends. What happens outside our Commonwealth meetings, be they of foresters or lawyers or finance ministers, matters as much as the proceedings within those Commonwealth meetings. You meet a colleague, you don’t need much introduction; you speak the same language metaphorically as well as literally; you know that if you have a problem some time down the road you can pick up the phone and seek his advice or seek his help. You won’t always agree – that is not necessarily a part of the Commonwealth as we both know – you won’t always have the same approach but you should always retain that indefinable element of personal friendship that is so distinctive to the Commonwealth and so difficult to find in any other international organisation.

    So may I this evening very sincerely thank you for greeting us in that spirit of friendship. You don’t need me to tell you, I hope, that you and Mrs. Mahathir and all your colleagues will always be greeted in precisely the same spirit whenever you come to London. You mentioned at the outset of your remarks that relations between my country and Malaysia are in such good shape. In our discussions perhaps over dinner this evening and certainly tomorrow, I know that we will both work hard to keep them that way. It is a longstanding tradition we have, it is a tradition we cherish, it is a tradition I look forward to building upon so perhaps I may invite all your guests this evening also to join me in proposing, Prime Minister, a toast to you and Mrs. Mahathir and friendship between the United Kingdom and Malaysia.