Malaysia A Dynamic Country, says Czech Republic President

KUCHING (Sarawak,Malaysia), July 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is a dynamic country which has been expanding and growing in all aspects, the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, said here, Friday night. He said his last visit to the country was 16 years ago when he was the Prime Minister of the central European nation and after two days of his latest visit, he observed that Malaysia had progressed tremendously. "Our feelings after two days here is that there has been a tremendous, visible and tangible development in your country," he said when speaking at a State dinner held in honour of his visit to Sarawak. Sarawak Head of State, Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Barieng led the state dignitaries at the dinner which was also attended by the Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud and members of the State Cabinet. Klaus arrived here late Friday afternoon accompanied by his wife, Livia Klausova, and several ministers and members of the business community from the republic. Klaus said his visit was aimed at fostering closer relationship between the two countries in all fields. He said Malaysia and the Czech Republic had differing backgrounds and this could spur the interests of people from both countries to know more of each other. On his visit to Sarawak, he said it had always been his intention not just to stay at the capital city of a country that he went to under a state visit but to try to go to other parts of the country. "We have made a good choice by visiting your beautiful state of Sarawak," he added. Meanwhile, Taib in his welcoming speech at the dinner said Sarawak was now setting a target of becoming an industrialised state in 20 years' time but would continue to maintain its green nature. Taib said eco-tourism development had been the state government's latest plan to open up the interior of Sarawak to enable people from outside the state to enjoy the rich nature that it possessed. "Mulu is the best place to get the introduction into this (rich nature) and had been recognised as one of the nature's top gifts to the world," he said. He said Sarawak's success to shift into a new level of development had been made possible through the process of keeping together its small population who had been leaving sparsely throughout the massive state. "Now we are looking forward to a much different Sarawak from what it was (before), which was based so much on agriculture and timber industries. We are moving away from these," he added. -- BERNAMA