SPEAKER British High Commissioner, Boyd McCleary

DATE 07/10/2009

Our distinguished speaker: Mr Ian Shott, President of the Institution of Chemical Engineering and CEO of Excelsyn,

Professor Wan Ramli Wan Daud,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and gentlemen, 

1. Good afternoon.  It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon at this inaugural Presidential Lecture.  The British High Commission is really pleased to be supporting this event.

2. In today’s increasingly globalised and competitive world, Malaysia and the UK are fortunate to be able to enjoy the intellectual and economic rewards that stem from our friendly and long-standing working relationship.  Our two countries are used to sharing experience and expertise in many different areas, in education, the law and in business. Our trading relationship is strong. In 2008, bilateral trade was a healthy £3 billion (RM17m) and Malaysia is the UK’s second largest market for goods in South-East Asia.

3. Malaysia’s rapid development, strategic location and political and social stability make it an attractive place for British investment.  It’s no wonder that many notable British companies, the likes of Rolls-Royce, Dyson, BAE Systems, BP, British Telecom, Tesco and Spirit Aerosystems use Malaysia as a base for high-value activities such as advanced manufacturing, Research & Development and other specialist services.

4. The UK attaches great importance to our bilateral links with Malaysia and is always looking for new partnership opportunities in the fields of science, engineering and innovation. We know from experience that everyone benefits when our two countries collaborate in research and build on our well-established trade and investment relationship.

5. Just last week, The BHC in collaboration with IchemE, University Technology Malaysia and the Royal Society of Chemistry, organised a seminar on water technology and incidentally, all 5 speakers, 2 of whom were local researchers were chemical engineers by training.

6. Chemical engineering is perceived as a springboard that spawns research discoveries or applications in other scientific fields of research. It’s great that Ian Shott is here with us today to deliver his lecture on Accelerated evolution – capitalising on the bioscience revolution. I hope that today’s event will help to spark new ideas, highlight opportunities to enhance collaboration and build new links between Malaysia and the UK.

7. As a reflection of our desire to do more with Malaysia, we have a dedicated Science and Innovation Officer to complement the wider UK Trade and Investment team at the High Commission. Her name is Lee Ching Heong and she was involved in organising today’s event. Ching is here today. Please do stop and have a chat with her later to discuss any areas where she may be able to add real value.

8. Thank you all for coming and all that remains is for me to introduce Ian and welcome him up here.

Back to newsroom

Back to top