Malaysia marks day with PNG

AS Papua New Guinea celebrated its 37th independence anniversary on Sunday, Malaysia was celebrating its 49th Malaysia Day, marking the moment the country was born when Sabah and Sarawak, on Borneo Island, were united with the Federation of Malaya.
Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya six years after it gained independence from Britain on Aug 31, 1957.
Malaysian High Commissioner Datin Seri Blanche Olbery said in Port Moresby that Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Abdul Razak had reaffirmed the commitment that Malaysia would continue to be intact based on the consensus and cooperation of all quarters.
Olbery said last Friday that Malaysia hoped to further strengthen bilateral relations.
She said her country was now moving to a service-oriented state, and the country’s income per capita would almost double in eight years.
“The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) is a sweet success story in the nation’s history in transforming the lives of the people in rural areas who depend heavily on agriculture as their economic means.
“Felda was established with the express purpose of bringing rural Malaysians out of poverty by settling them on their own land.
“This is done by modernising the agricultural sector in areas such as oil palm where Felda has been granted the administrative authority, especially in activities related to production, processing and the marketing of agriculture and livestock product.
“Felda has achieved much as Malaysia’s largest oil palm operator since 1956,” she said.
“This year, Felda Global Ventures has been listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and mustered more than US$3 billion (K6.7 billion) from investors.
“Based on the report by the Financial Times, Felda became the second largest stock market listing in the world in 2012 after Facebook.”