Malaysia-S'pore Agree On Committees To Oversee Joint Cooperation In IDR

LANGKAWI, May 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to set up a ministerial-level committee on each side to oversee joint cooperation in the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) in southern Johor.
There will be consultative committees to work on areas such as easy access for investment, tourism and environment cooperation in IDR.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, said this in a joint news conference after a delegation meeting here today.
"We have agreed to set up a special committee at ministerial level to discuss many issues. We will name the ministers soon," said Abdullah.
Meanwhile, Lee said the ministers in charge would be tasked to focus on ideas and proposals which both leaders had floated so far and turn them into something tangible and practical.
Elaborating on the easy access to IDR, Abdullah said that he and Lee wanted speedy access between IDR and Singapore.
"I have made a specific suggestion that we can have easy access for people who are travelling between Singapore and IDR, that will be good.
"We can have smart card for this purpose. That means we do away with the necessity of having to produce a passport and going through immigration which can take a long time," he said, adding that Lee had agreed on this.
The IDR was launched by Abdullah in November last year to boost the southern region of Malaysia. Meanwhile, Lee, who acknowledged the importance of the IDR to Malaysia, said Singapore has made an assessment of the IDR and decided that "it is fundamentally good for us".
"If this project takes off and succeeds, it will complement Singapore and between us, it will have a whole centre of vibrancy, activities, interest which will be good for tourism, manufacturing and services," he said.
He said this was good for people because there would be opportunities on both sides of the Johor strait.
Described the IDR as a "little spot" in Southeast Asia, he hoped that investors all around the region would take serious advantage of the opportunities that would be offered from the development.
This is their first media statement since Abdullah and Lee arrived here yesterday for the unofficial talks.
They said they also discussed Asean issues, particularly the Asean Charter which Malaysia has agreed to support Singapore in drafting.
"Asean needs a good document in order to strengthen its institution and set a clear directive for the organisation for its future, so that it can be effective and its co-operation can be strengthened," said Lee.
The leaders also touched on environmental issues in which Abdullah said Malaysia had agreed to allow Singapore to participate in environmental projects such as cleaning up rivers in southern Johor.
They also agreed to take the issue of aviation services further in future meetings.

tunku : pak lah, did you ask him about the bridge or you damn care about it. what you care now is how to make our neighbour prosper more. why do singaopre be in our IDR committee, is IDR under singapore? singaopre only willing to cooperates if they are in winning situation otherwise forget about it, and we so stupid let it happen.