Samy Vellu begins special envoy duties

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, who assumed duties as Malaysia's special envoy, with ministerial rank, on infrastructure to India and South Asia on Saturday, will begin his tour of duty on Thursday, starting with New Delhi.

The former MIC president will be leading a 150-strong Malaysian Indian delegation to the ninth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, an annual conference that brings together people of Indian origin from throughout the world, according to a statement from his office here Monday.

The former works minister is scheduled to hold talks with high-ranking Indian government officials on the sidelines of the four-day conference in New Delhi to prepare the ground to open up more opportunities for Malaysian businessmen to venture into India, the statement said.

The conference, to be officially opened by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday, will also see participation by key Indian Cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath, who is responsible for infrastructure projects in India.

Samy Vellu, who stepped down last month after 31 years as MIC president, was appointed special envoy by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to tap Samy Vellu's experience in clinching billions of ringgit worth of projects for Malaysian companies during his tenure as works minister.

Besides India, other South Asian countries under Samy Vellu's portfolio are Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

During a meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh here in October, Samy Vellu had expressed the hope that Malaysian businessmen would be given more opportunities by the Indian government to participate in infrastructure development projects in India.

Samy Vellu was quoted as saying that he had asked Dr Manmohan Singh for India to establish greater trade and investment cooperation with Malaysia.

He had said that in the past 10 years, Malaysian businessmen had played a significant role in infrastructure development in India, completing projects worth about US$20bil (about RM61.4bil) but that the figure had dwindled of late.

During his official visit here in October, Dr Manmohan Singh said India, which plans to raise its investment target in infrastructure projects to US$1tril (about RM3.07tril), welcomed greater Malaysian participation given Malaysia's strength in the sector.

In its 11th five-year plan which ends in 2011, India has targeted investment in infrastructure of US$500bil (about RM1.5tril) and hopes to increase this to US$1tril in the 12th plan, Dr Manmohan Singh was quoted as saying. - Bernama