Malaysia Aims To Boost Tourism Cooperation With Asean+3 Countries

Malaysia is looking forward to further collaborating with the Asean Plus Three (Asean+3) countries of China, Korea and Japan, especially in the tourism industry to enhance economic cooperation and integration.

"We are very committed in promoting East Asia as we believe with Asean+3, we can achieve practical things much faster. We look forward to China, Japan and Korea helping us," said Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Chairman of the East Asia Business Council (EABC).

Despite the global economic slowdown, Asean's trade and investment with the Asean+3 countries remains robust, he told reporters at the EABC-Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Symposium on Expanding Trade and Investment Linkages in East Asia here today.

The symposium was officiated by the MITI Deputy Minister, Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan. Also present was the chairman of the EABC tourism sub-committee, Datuk Syed Amin Al-Jeffri.Syed Amin said tourism remained one of the biggest money generators for Southeast Asian countries, with the industry worth nearly US$30-US$40 billion annually.

The cooperation between Asean and the Asean+3 countries will create a regional tourism development strategy, strengthen regional links, raise quality of tourism products and services, and harmonise common interests of regional tourism as well as the interests of each Asean member country.

"We want to get China, Japan and Korea to form the East Asean Tourism Association and this is crucial in promoting tourism cooperation," he said.ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Source = bernama