KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry is reviewing ways to strengthen the institutional framework for the country’s international development cooperation to better support developing countries grappling with mounting debt, escalating conflicts and the threat of a widening technological divide.
Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni said the review would draw on insights from a symposium on the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP), a key instrument of Malaysia’s commitment to developing countries through human capital development, technical assistance and capacity building.
Under the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025), he said the MTCP funded 330 capacity-building programmes benefiting 5,609 participants from 144 developing countries, while supporting 87 scholars pursuing tertiary education in Malaysia.
“Yet, the true impact of MTCP is measured not in numbers, but in outcomes,” he said in his keynote address at the Symposium on MTCP: Prosperity Through Partnership here on Wednesday.
He cited the programme’s support for capacity building in Timor-Leste’s public service ahead of its integration into Asean, a milestone achieved during Malaysia’s Asean chairmanship last year, as an example of its impact.
Lukanisman said the global landscape in which the MTCP operated had grown more complex since the 1980s, with escalating conflicts, mounting debt burdens among developing countries and rapid technological advances threatening to widen the gap between technology creators and consumers.
“Wisma Putra (the Foreign Ministry) is reviewing how best to fortify the institutional framework for Malaysia’s international development cooperation,” he said.
He said Malaysia had reiterated at the United Nations General Assembly last month that the Global South must be empowered as partners in innovation rather than merely treated as clients and markets.
“Technical cooperation is the most practical vehicle to achieve this,” he said.
Also present at the symposium was Acting Director-General of the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Datuk Rus Shazila Osman. — Bernama