Ambassador's speech at the Reception to Celebrate the Birthday of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan

Speech by Ambassador Mr. OKA at the Reception to Celebrate the Birthday of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan

Yang Berhormat Tuan Lim Guan Eng, Minister of Finance
Tan Sri Tan Sri, Puan Sri Puan Sri, Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan, Para hadirin semua
Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Selamat petang dan selamat datang ke kediaman rasmi duta jepun ke Malaysia di sini

It is with great honour and pleasure that we host this reception to celebrate the 60th birthday of His Majesty Emperor Naruhito of Japan, who came to the throne on May 1st last year as the 126th Emperor of Japan, and this is his first birthday celebration in the new Reiwa era that started with his enthronement.

Let me first express my profound respect to all those who are fighting the threat posed by the new type of corona virus. There is no boundary for the virus. Japan is willing to support all the efforts in this regard and I sincerely hope early recovery for all those who have been affected by the virus.

Since my arrival to Kuala Lumpur in November last year, I have witnessed many visible footprints of cooperation between Japan and Malaysia built on a firm bond of friendship since the independence of Malaysia.

One of such footprints is found in the quality infrastructure. Thanks to the completion of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant on the outskirt of KL last month, we can now enjoy in KL and in the state of Selangor abundant supply of quality water. Where does the water come from in the first place? It is from the neighbouring Pahang state that raw water is transferred to Selangor state through a long underground tunnel. Japan has assisted in the construction of this underground tunnel, which is the first inter-state water tunnel in Malaysia and the longest among all the ASEAN countries. 

Education and human capacity development is another priority area for cooperation. Thanks to the Look East Policy inaugurated in 1982 and re-energized in 2018 both by Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir, more than 17,000 Malaysians have sought opportunities for higher education and training in Japan. In addition, more than 1,400 Japanese businesses are operating in Malaysia, creating 340,000 employment opportunities for Malaysians. Japan supports the Industry 4.0 initiative as well as Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.
Maritime safety is also an area of priority cooperation. It is in everybody’s interest that the free and safe passage of the Straits of Malacca and the adjacent areas is ensured. As a beneficiary of freedom of navigation there, Japan has worked for more than 50 years with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to contribute to the safety of navigation, and supported the function of MMEA (Malaysian Coast Guard) since its establishment in 2005 through providing assets and supporting human capacity developments.  Based on the solid maritime cooperation, Japan supports the aspiration of Malaysia to make its own centre for training vessel traffic service at Port Klang as the hub for all the training centres in the ASEAN countries. Japan has provided various facilities, including e-learning system to help this aspiration materialize and the centre has now become ASEAN Regional Training Centre for vessel traffic service (VTS).

Malaysia is the linchpin between the two Oceans, the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, and Japan supports to enhance the connectivity within and surrounding Malaysia by promoting physical connectivity through quality infrastructure development, human connectivity through education and human capacity development, and the maritime connectivity through contributing safety of navigation under the overarching Free and Open Indo Pacific vision. 

Year 2020 is important for both Malaysia and Japan. Japan will provide its full support to the Chairmanship of Malaysia to lead the APEC process aiming at a new VISION for APEC post 2020. For Japan, torch of summer Olympic will return to Tokyo this summer for the first time in 56 years. There, we would like many visitors to witness the full recovery from the great earthquake that struck Japan in 2011. Our road to recovery has enormously been helped by the layers of bond of friendship extended to us from all over the world. We are deeply thankful to Malaysia who offered emergency supply of LNG earlier than any other country to make up for the loss of nuclear power plant. 

Before closing my speech, I would like to thank all the sponsors tonight who, with their Japanese delicacies and state of the art displays, will enrich your presence with us. Thank you, HE Minister Lim Guan Eng and all the guests for your kind attendance. Please enjoy your evening.  Sekian Terimah kasih.