CII opens office in Malaysia

NEW DELHI: The opening of CII office in Malaysia is a result of a commitment given at the Malaysia India Business forum last year in the presence of Prime Minister M Mahathir of Malaysia and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestment, Information Technology and Communications, opened the Malaysia office of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Kuala Lumpur. Speaking at the inauguration, Shourie said "The office should serve to beam the learning's from Malaysia and the region back to India. The change happening in Malaysia is remarkable and there is so much to learn form Malaysia. Similarly the opportunities in India need to be communicated to Malaysia. There are many areas for joint venture and cooperation between India and Malaysia and the office could further enhance this".

Speaking at the Inaugural function, Jamshyd Godrej, Past President CII and Chairman of the CII ASEAN Committee said, "The office would also help strengthen and build CII partnership with partners in Malaysia including Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI), Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), MAIDA, and MATRADE."

Addressing the NAM Business forum, Tarun Das, Director General CII, suggested a seven point agenda for cooperation among NAM Countries. He advocated the setting up of a NAM Business Council. Second, there must be a focus on improving Competitiveness of firms in NAM member countries. The future is not Aid but Trade. As specific ideas to focus on, Das suggested areas such as TQM, TPM, Energy Management and IPR Management. Third area was corporate governance.

As firms in the NAM nations need access to capital, there could be cooperation in setting up a process to help firms adhere to corporate governance. Fourth, is cooperation among regulatory organizations within NAM. Fifth, cooperation of the institutions in the financial sector. This was important for a continuous flow of information among countries to detect unnatural flows.

Sixth was training and education. This would enable the NAM members to leverage the human capabilities. Lastly, he also called for structured cooperation on trade policy.