OPENING REMARKS
YB DATO’ SRI PETER CHIN FAH KUI
MINISTER OF ENERGY, GREEN TECHNOLOGY AND WATER, MALAYSIA
EU-MALAYSIA GREEN TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS PLATFORM
20 DECEMBER 2011, 14:00 – 17:00 HRS
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR

H.E. Vincent Piket
Ambassador of the EU to Malaysian

Y. Bhg Datuk Loo Took Gee
Secretary-General, Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water

Mr. David Jones
Chairman of the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ms. Minna Saneri
General Manager, EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Selamat Pagi.

1.    Firstly, I would like to thank all present today. Looking at the attendance, I am confident we are going to have a very fruitful meeting today.  Before proceeding further, I would also like to convey my utmost gratitude and appreciation to HE Vincent Piket and the EUMCCI, especially Ms Minna Saneri, who have been very supportive in promoting green technology in Malaysia, especially strengthening business relations between Malaysia and EU in the sector, including organizing this Business Platform for the second round this year. This clearly shows the great interests of EU companies towards Malaysia’s potential growth and as a strategic business partner within this region.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

2.    The earlier business platform has proven very useful for Malaysia, especially in taking note of issues raised by the EU business sector. This certainly has helped us in molding the green technology sector to cater to business interests. Today, we will move forward with this noble endeavor to further strengthen Malaysia-EU relations, especially in green technology trade and business. MY-EU trade has been steadily improving and the trade value is standing at about Euro 32 billion. This would be further enhanced with the upcoming MY-EU FTA, which I was told, is developing well. I also hope that we could further increase our trade in services.

3.    Since the last time we had this meeting, we have seen much development at the Ministry.  We have introduced the FiT for RE and is now operational. I believe some of you may be involved and even would have applied for FiT. This would be good opportunity for us to get some preliminary feedback on the system. This would help us in continuously improving the system so that all stakeholders and clients will benefit from it.

4.    I would also request EU companies here to partner with local associates to participate in the scheme. More importantly, I would request that EU companies bring in new technologies and services to support our RE efforts. The main driver for RE would be financing and technology. We have also successfully organized the IGEM 2011 and I am happy to note that it was much more successful than the inaugural IGEM 2010. At this juncture, I must thank the EU Mission and the EUMCCI for your excellent support. We could discuss on that to see how we could improve further for the 2012 series. We hope to get even better support from the EU for IGEM 2012.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

5.    We have also introduced the Low Carbon Cities Framework. I believe that Malaysia may be one of the first to have a framework as such. We would like to introduce the framework to EU companies and see how we can work towards making it even better, especially the technological input to the framework.

6.    Finally I would also like to seek your opinion on how we can promote R&D in green technology. I was made to understand that the EU spends about Euro 402.2 billion in year 2009 alone for R&D, whilst Malaysia’s allocation for R&D was about USD 4.3 billion for the whole 9th Malaysia Plan. There is a lot of opportunity for Malaysia to participate in EU’s R&D initiative, especially the Framework Programs. But unfortunately, we do not see much involvement of Malaysia’s entities in the Program.

7.    I am also here to listen to your issues you face in participating in our green technology sector, including energy and water industries. I would do my utter best to resolve the issues so that you could participate effectively in the sector. At the same time, I would also want to listen to your suggestions and recommendations as to how we could work together to further promote and

8.    Before I conclude, I would like to once again thank the EUMCCI for organizing this Business Platform and for providing this excellent opportunity to enhance Malaysia-Europe trade and business relations. I also thank the EU Mission for supporting and facilitating this event.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion here today.

Thank you.