Malaysia to House Centre for IMT-GT

Malaysia to House Centre for IMT-GT.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN : An agreement to set up the Centre for the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Subregional Cooperation (CIMT), which will be based in Malaysia, was signed at the just-concluded 22nd Asean Summit here.

The operations of the centre would be funded equally by the three countries, CIMT said.

It said that the signing ceremony held on Thursday, the final day of the two-day summit, marked the first historical milestone towards a full fledged secretariat for the IMT-GT.

CIMT's objective is to accelerate sub-regional cooperation by providing a more cohesive institutional structure to coordinate and facilitate projects.

Among its specific mandates are to strengthen coordination mechanisms and consultation processes among IMT-GT institutions in the subregion as well as provide institutional framework to support public and private sector activities apart from improving facilitation and implementation of priority projects and monitoring and evaluations of projects agreements.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Special Representative of the Malaysian Prime Minister Senate President Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang witnessed the signing.

The 7th IMT-GT Summit was also held on the sidelines of the Asean Summit which was chaired by Abu Zahar.

In a joint statement, the leaders said that they welcomed the setting up of the CIMT which signified concrete reinforced commitments by all member countries in subregional cooperation.

"We are confident that a strengthened CIMT would contribute significantly in ensuring effective delivery of IMT-GT programmes and projects."

They also thanked Malaysia for supporting the interim arrangement to shoulder the operational budget of CIMT prior to its signing.

The leaders also noted that the sea routes in IMT-GT remained critical for Asean with the identification of Melaka-Dumai and Penang-Belawan-Phuket, as part of the priority routes in the Assean commissioned by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). They tasked their officials to accelerate its operations.

IMT-GT is a sub-regional cooperation initiative formed by the governments of the three countries in 1993 to speed the economic transformation in their least-developed provinces.

The cooperation further seeks to promote the welfare and economic growth of the people living in the areas covered by the IMT-GT.

The IMT-GT currently consists of 14 provinces in Southern Thailand (Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Pattani, Phattalung, Satun, Songkhla, Trang, Yala, Chumphon, Ranong, Surat Thani, Phang Nga and Phuket), eight states in Malaysia (Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Perak, Perlis and Selangor) and 10 provinces in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia (Aceh, Bangka-Belitung, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, North Sumatra, Riau, Riau Islands, South Sumatra, and West Sumatra).

The IMT-GT economy is on the upswing with gross domestic product (GDP) growing at 6.4 per cent in 2010. Data shows that GDP per person in IMT-GT is higher than in the Asean region and is still increasing, while the unemployment rate and poverty incidence is declining.

Foreign and domestic investments in the IMT-GT subregion have also shown positive prospects while intra-tourism has continued with an average annual growth rate of 7.3 per cent in visitors arrivals from IMT region for 2006-2010 period.

IMT-GT's total trade is also increasing with a registered trade surplus of US$61.1 billion in 2011. Asean is IMT-GT's top trading partner with a 32.1 share of cumulative trade over the 2008-2011 period while other major trading partners are the US, European Union, China and Japan. [Bernama, Business Times]