Category: Malaysia

  • What does Erdogan’s win mean for the world?

    What does Erdogan’s win mean for the world?

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was declared the winner of the presidential election. What does it mean for the world?

    Arshad Khan, a new resident of Istanbul from International Islamic University, Malaysia answers this question as follows:

    Victory of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan means different to different leaders and countries

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    America: Not an easy ally who bow down to their tune, tough time to deal with unless Trump is incharge

    NATO: Dependable ally, second largest military with good relations against projected enemies

    Sweden: Difficult road ahead to get in NATO

    Europe: Alternative to China to smaller extent with whom they want to lessen their dependency. will not be dancing to their tune on false promises of Entry to european Union. They will gear up trying to be good friends after trying desperately to not get him elected.

    Turkic states: Good news, they can play a unified major role

    UAE & Saudia: continuation of newly developed friendship, can be a reliable partner against western bullying.

    Qatar & Azerbiajan: Big Brother victory which to be celebrated by whole country

    China: can continue working on BRI and silk route revival. trustable and important route for their export markets

    Russia & Iran: Happiest, will make Turkey the HUB of energy for supplying to west without sanctions

    Iraq: can proceed further on development of Highway from Basra to Europe via Turkey

    Syria: will try to ally by asking more concession but will get realigned from pressure of Russia and Iran

    Afganistan & pakistan: Dreamland of Ertugrul gazi and revival of ottoman empire.

    Africa: happiest and want to continue the trade and business and develop it multifold.

  • Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes in Malaysia tribunal

    Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes in Malaysia tribunal

    Former US president George Bush and his former counterpart Tony Blair were found guilty of war crimes by The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal which held a four day hearing in the Malaysia.

    The five panel tribunal unanimously decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against peace and humanity when they invaded Iraq in 2003 in blatant violation of international law.

    The judges ruled that war against Iraq by both the former heads of states was a flagrant abuse of law, act of aggression which amounted to a mass murder of the Iraqi people.

    In their verdict, the judges said that the United States, under the leadership of Bush, forged documents to claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

    They further said the findings of the tribunal be made available to members of the Rome Statute and the names of Bush and Blair be entered into a war crimes register.

    Both Bush and Blair repeatedly said the so-called war against terror was targeted at terrorists.

  • Your 10 questions for Serap Ataay

    Your 10 questions for Serap Ataay

    How has the Arab Spring affected Turkey? What is the Turkish government’s stand on the revolution currently engulfing the Middle East?

    The ongoing transformation in the region emerged and developed as a consequence of the aspirations of the local people. They basically call for transparency, rule of law, political participation, freedom, constitutional reforms and better economic opportunities. From the very beginning, the Turkish Government encouraged the leaders of the countries in question to listen to the voice of their people and respect their demands. We are contributing and determined to contribute more to these countries’ efforts to come out of transitional period by achieving their ambitions on the basis of social consensus.

    What are the challenges you encounter in your attempt to promote stronger bilateral ties between Turkey and Malaysia?

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    Due to different geographical locations, the priorities of Turkey and Malaysia justifiably diverge. Indeed, this might present itself as a challenge when you intend to foster bilateral relations. Keeping this limitation in mind, our Embassy focuses on areas of cooperation in every field. PM Najib’s official visit to Turkey last year boosted our relations, and we expect that relations will reach even higher levels when PM Erdogan returns this visit, most probably this year.

    What made you choose a career in the diplomatic field, and what are the most important character traits, qualifications and skills for one to be a successful diplomat?

    I had decided to become a diplomat when I was 14. At that age, I think I was influenced by some relatives who aspired to be in foreign services. As for the character traits of successful diplomats, common sense and patience to listen to other people, I believe, are the most important ones.

    How is Malaysia seen in the eyes of the Turkish people?

    Malaysia is seen quite positively in Turkey. On the other hand, it would be fair to argue that Turkish people are not much exposed to the news about Malaysia. It is our intention and duty to help narrow the gap between the two. Recently, the Malaysian Government provided assistance for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Van province of Turkey. Besides, there were many other individual acts of support shown by Malaysian people. For example, the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti), headed by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor made a donation. Gestures like these were highly welcomed by the Turkish people and I am certain that helping hands extended during difficult times will always be remembered.

    Is Turkey still interested in becoming a European Union member, given the fact that the deepening sovereign debt crisis is creating so much uncertainty to the region’s economy and financial system? If so, why?

    European Union (EU) membership is a long term strategic goal for Turkey. We are firmly engaged in accession process. The resoluteness and political will in our side cannot and will not be disturbed by provisional crises like the one EU has been going through.

    What is Turkey’s strategy and target for its economy amid the current global economic turmoil?

    Turkey has entered the current economic crisis with strong public finance, strong banking sector, political stability, strong political will, fiscal consolidation and prudent monetary policy.

    We are taking the necessary measures to keep the effects of the recent crisis in Turkey to a minimum. For instance, we are committed to our fiscal discipline and monetary policy; diversify our export markets, reduce imported energy dependency by promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy, and increase domestic savings. We also introduced some structural reforms to enhance investment environment.

    Turkey is the 16th biggest economy in the world now. Our target is to be in the top 10 by 2023, when we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Turkish Republic.

    What are things that Malaysia can do to attract more investments from Turkish businessmen? And what are the sectors that would interest them the most?

    Facilitating legal framework and close cooperation of relevant institutions form the basis of investment relations. Investment Agencies of Turkey and Malaysia, ISPAT and MIDA, has agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, recently. Turkish Central Bank and Bank Negara have also agreed to sign a barter agreement. These are steps in the right direction.

    Currently, Turkish investments in Malaysia are mostly concentrated in the defence industry. On the other hand, I am observing gladly that three Turkish companies in cosmetic, building materials and food Industries have decided to make investments in Iskandar. It is quite encouraging.

    I see a great potential in the construction sector. Turkey’s construction industry is the second biggest in the world, after China. Turkey’s capable and experienced construction companies should take their share from Malaysia’s infrastructure projects.

    Ongoing FTA negotiations, once concluded, will not only expand bilateral trade, but also affect investment from both sides positively.

    On the other hand, Turkey offers competitive investment opportunities for Malaysian companies. Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s latest investments in healthcare, transportation and construction in Turkey are quite heartening. We expect and call more Malaysian companies to follow Khazanah.

    How are trade, diplomacy and business ties been between Turkey and Malaysia and how do you see that evolving?

    The bilateral relations between Turkey and Malaysia have been progressing in every field. Malaysian PM’s visit to Turkey confirmed once again the political will in both sides to improve the relations even further. Turkish PM’s visit to Malaysia and the signing of Free Trade Agreement constitute our priorities for this year. I foresee that the relations will widen and deepen for the years to come.

    How are you adopting to Malaysia and what do you think about Malaysian women as compared to those in Turkey?

    It is my third year in Malaysia and I can say that my adaptation period was rather short and quite easy, thanks to the Malaysian hospitality. It is a very welcoming country, indeed.

    Active participation of Malaysian women in social and economic life is what impresses me the most. The high number of female students at universities is also very remarkable. I commend Malaysian women for playing such a critical role in the well being of their country.

    How important is Asia to Turkey and what is being done to improve business ties with the East?

    Turkey is aware of the rising strategic importance of the region. We increase our presence by opening new Embassies and also Commercial Offices. With this, we aim to better identify opportunities presented and create many bridges between Turkish people, Turkish business community and their counterparts here.

    The 3rd Turkish Products Exhibition that will be held at the KL Convention Centre between March 1 and 3 2012 can be cited as an example of our efforts to improve business ties between Turkey and Malaysia. About 70 Turkish companies will be participating to showcase a wide range of Turkish products i.e. agriculture products, automotive, machineries, building materials such as tiles and ceramics, chemicals, industrial products, food products, cosmetics, gifts, decorative articles, kitchen accessories, textiles and many more. This is a must visit for anyone looking for new business opportunities in the Turkish market.

    Simultaneously, in collaboration with JW Marriott KL, there will be a Cultural Week at this hotel from Feb 26 to March 3. Fascinating Turkish folk dances will be performed and selected Turkish food and delicacies will be served. Turkish handicrafts and arts such as glass blowing and marbling will also be showcased.

    I would like extend an invitation to all Malaysians to join us in these events.

  • Malaysia and Turkey exploring opportunities in ‘New Silk Route’

    Malaysia and Turkey exploring opportunities in ‘New Silk Route’

    By MUSHTAK PARKER | ARAB NEWS

    Published: Nov 7, 2011 00:25 Updated: Nov 7, 2011 00:25

    In the corridors of power in Ankara, a new thinking is emerging especially among the “Young Turks” of the Turkish establishment.

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    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives for the first working session at the G20 summit in Cannes, France. (AP)

    A combination of the aftermath of the global financial crisis; the seemingly intractable euro zone debt crisis with neighboring rival, Greece, bearing the brunt of the criticism; and endless obfuscation and simmering opposition by some diehard opponents to Turkish membership of the European Union; and the uncertainty in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region because of the so-called “Arab Spring,” is forcing Ankara to look beyond its traditional trading partners and markets in the EU and the Middle East and to consider alternative ways of raising funds and investments into the country.

    Turkish companies are now exploring opportunities and are already active in sub-Saharan Africa; South and East Asia and even further afield in Latin America.

    The process is not one-sided. In fact, Turkey and Malaysia, for instance, are forging greater cooperation in trade, investment and especially linkages in the Islamic financial industry between the two markets.

    How times are changing. The new “Sick Men of Europe” are Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and possibly Spain — a big enough quorum to form their own unique club.

    Turkey on the other hand, with its projected six percent plus GDP growth rate for 2011, is walking tall — politically confident with the ruling Erdogan government recently returned with a landslide in its third successive democratic elections; economically far more stable sustained especially by export diversification and robust domestic demand; and the banking system weathering the global financial crisis far better because it learnt the lessons from its own financial crisis in 2001.

    The relatively modest volume of trade and investment between the Turkey and Malaysia currently reflects the enormous opportunity for further growth.

    During the recent visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to Turkey, he and his Turkish counterpart, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed a new target for bilateral trade between the two countries from the current $1.3 billion to $5 billion.

    Turkish investors and financial institutions could use Malaysia as a gateway to the ASEAN region, while the Malaysian financial community could use Turkey as a gateway to Central Asia and Europe.

    The two governments are also working on signing a double tax treaty and a bilateral trade agreement.

    Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world; it has a population of 70 million of which the average age is 29, which is the youngest in Europe; it is the 16th largest steel producer in the world; and the country averaged a GDP growth rate of 10.3 percent for the first half of 2011.

    While Turkey traditionally has had strong business relations with fellow Middle Eastern countries, its relations with fellow Muslim countries outside the MENA region, has been woefully neglected partly because of the then certainty of the economic relations with the EU and GCC markets and partly because of the inherent conservatism of the Turkish establishment whose focus was membership of the European club and rapprochement with the Middle East for political and economic expediency respectively.

    With the emergence of Malaysia as the powerhouse of the global Islamic finance industry, which in the Southeast Asian country has a unique connectivity with real economic activities including infrastructure financing, project finance, trade finance, SME financing, consumer finance and even wealth management and creation, it is not surprising that Ankara is seeking synergies with Kuala Lumpur in this nascent but fast growing industry.

    Both Malaysia and Turkey are secular states, albeit the former has less sensitivities about Shariah (Islamic legal) applications in finance and in limited personal law.

    Malaysia, privately frustrated by the inertia of regulatory and legal developments in the Islamic finance space in most of the Arab Middle East countries, is itself exploring new markets as part of its Malaysia International Islamic Finance Center (MIFC) initiative which aims to make Malaysia the global hub for sukuk origination, fund management, as a platform to raise funds and to effect cross-border transactions. Malaysian Islamic financial institutions, with a proven track record in consumer finance, asset management, fixed-income instruments and sukuk, are keen to impart their experience through advisory and management services to the Turkish market where sukuk origination and fund management is merely set to take off.

    Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the central bank, indeed organized an Islamic finance road show to Istanbul at the end of September 2011 which included bilateral briefings, a business seminar, an address on the future of Islamic finance by former Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamed and panel discussions on capital markets and fund management.

    The aim of the seminar was to strengthen economic, business and Islamic financial linkages for the mutual benefits of both countries.

    The theme of the road show and seminar, “Malaysia and Turkey: The New Silk Route in Islamic Finance — Strategies for Collaboration, Cooperation and Smart Partnership,” could not be more pertinent.

    BNM Deputy Gov. Muhammad bin Ibrahim, in his opening address, reminded that “the emergence of the ‘Silk Route’, a term coined by (BNM) Gov. Zeti Akhtar Aziz in 2006, opens up exciting prospects for countries and businesses.

    The new ‘Silk Route’ not only carries traditional trade of goods and services of old but also manufactured goods, technological innovation and know-how, portfolio flows, private equity investment and mobility of human capital and knowledge.

    Today, Islamic financial products and services are truly ‘new’ additions to this trade.”

    The truth is that Malaysia and Turkey have a natural fit which for various reasons have until recently been overlooked by both countries. Both countries are functional parliamentary democracies enjoying relatively political stability.

    Both countries have strong market economies with robust support from the respective governments, and flourishing private sectors, the backbone of their prosperity and progress.

    Islamic banking in both countries started uncannily at the same time in 1983 when the Islamic Banking Act under BAFIA was enacted in Malaysia and the special decree establishing Interest-free special finance houses was adopted in Turkey.

    As such both countries have established Islamic financial institutions, albeit the Malaysian sector is much bigger and today accounts for 22 percent of banking assets market share compared with almost 5 percent in Turkey.

    Turkey today is opening up to participation banking, the Turkish euphemism for Islamic banking. The market has its peculiarities, but it offers genuine opportunities in this space.

    It is no secret that politicians in Ankara prefer the dual banking model of Malaysia which sees the Islamic banking system develop side by side the conventional system and offering customers a choice as to which products they prefer, without imposing religious constraints or demands on the secular state.

    In a changing world, which is currently experiencing serious financial and economic challenges, the search for new alternatives that could mitigate the contemporary issues and challenges is imperative.

    This, maintained Deputy Gov. Ibrahim is where Islamic finance can fit in and play a meaningful role, especially with its emphasis on the attainment of socio-economic goals based on Shariah principles; on a strong linkage to productive economic activity to generate legitimate income; and on accountability, fairness and transparency.

    These are the values that could also serve as a resilient form of financial intermediation; as an effective intermediary for the conduct of global business including promoting greater intra-regional trade not only within Asia but between the various regions of emerging markets; and contribute to sustainable global economic growth and financial stability.

    He identified five key areas of possible cooperation between the two countries.

    The include sukuk origination, cross-border financial activities, fund management, joint product innovation, and Islamic finance education and research.

    “Malaysia,” he added, “welcomes the Turkish financial and business community to use its comprehensive and tested infrastructure with its extensive investor network as a platform to raise funds such as sukuk and Islamic syndication financing. The multi-currency Sukuk market in Malaysia is well developed and active with over 60 percent of the outstanding Sukuk in the world originating from Malaysia. Collaboration in issuance of sukuk would benefit Turkey, as the country’s aggressive diversification of its industrial base and services sectors will require huge financing needs that could be partially met through the Islamic financial markets.”

    At the same time, Malaysian market players stress the importance of sovereign Turkey issuing a benchmark Sukuk and are keen to participate in arranging and structuring any such issuance.

    Turkish financial institutions at the same time could network with Malaysian-based investors, and practitioners to facilitate more business opportunities who could help to structure funds for investment abroad, including into the emerging markets.

    Turkish banks and institutions could join Bursa Suq Al Sila’, the world’s first end-to-end Islamic multi-currency commodity trading platform, to facilitate liquidity management in the Islamic financial market.

    This fully-electronic platform facilitates sukuk structuring, Islamic financing and investment transactions including inter-bank placements and customer deposits, by applying the concept of Murabaha and Tawarruq.

    Since its establishment in 2009, 23 commodity trading participants from Malaysia, the Middle East and Europe have been registered with Bursa Suq Al-Sila’, contributing to the growth in its trading volume where 1370 trades were recorded in Q1, 2011 with a total value of $18 billion as compared to 728 trades in the final quarter of 2010 that totaled to an estimated $11 billion.

    Following the launch of the first Participation Bank Index by the Istanbul Stock Exchange earlier this year, the investment products introduced in the Turkish market have been expanded to include Islamic equity funds and products.

    Through collaboration and strategic alliances between Malaysian Islamic fund management companies and the participation banks in Turkey, the development and distribution of Shariah-compliant funds across borders could be made possible and new investment options to divest the savings of retail clients, as well as in the development of investment strategies to meet the needs of high net-worth individuals or sovereign wealth funds.

    This cooperation would be further enhanced should Bursa Malaysia and the Istanbul Stock Exchange launch a Mutual Equity Index for the two countries; and dual listings on the two exchanges.

    Malaysian and Turkish market players and institutions could jointly develop innovative products and investment instruments provide consultation and advisory services to support the development of Islamic finance.

    Similarly, collaboration can be explored between the International Center of Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) and Turkish universities to develop human capital to support the participation banking sector in Turkey.

  • Iran Khodro to design D8 joint car

    Iran Khodro to design D8 joint car

    Iran Khodro Co. (IKCO) has announced that the Group of Eight Developing Countries (D8) has chosen the company to design the platform for their joint car.

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    The D8 industry ministers attended a summit in Istanbul from October 4-6, 2011 and appointed IKCO to design the D8 joint car with the cooperation of Turkey and Indonesia, read a statement released by IKCO on Sunday.

    D8 members include Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

    D8 members also agreed to promote research and development activities in the fields of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) technology, hybrid technology, plug-in cars, new materials and nano-technology.

    “Improving the quality, level of technology and also the capacity if supply chain was another issue settled by the D8 vehicle working group,” the statement continued.

    IKCO was founded in 1962 and is currently regarded as the biggest automaker in the Middle East.

    The company won an award from Tehran’s Third International Nanotechnology Festival in 2010, as the leading company in nano-related auto industry.

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    via PressTV – Iran Khodro to design D8 joint car.

  • 2009 ANNUAL DUES, DONATIONS and Book Sales

    2009 ANNUAL DUES, DONATIONS and Book Sales

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    ÜYE AİDATLARI, BAĞIŞLAR VE KİTAP SATIŞLARI

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