Inaugural symposium in Kuala Lumpur

by Event on 22 Apr 2005 A symposium to promote the development of the new cruising playground as a regional cruising playground, consisting of the wide arc of water from Yangon to Manila Bay, will be held on May 26-27 at the Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Scheduled for the morning of May 26, the keynote speaker, Y.A.B Dato’ Seri Abdullah Badawi will launch the symposium.

In view of the Tsunami last year, and the importance of cruising and tourism to the whole region, this symposium will allow governments and key players of participating countries to meet together to promote confidence in the region, the main beneficiary being tourism.

Malaysia has taken the initiative to commence with the inaugural symposium, the title of which is ‘Yangon to Manila Bay: A New Cruising Playground’.

This is an international symposium, involving not only the various governments, but also the big players in the boating industry in each of the participating countries.

Participating Countries are: Malaysia (host), Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The following countries will also be invited: UAE – Dubai, Australia, New Zealand and China-Hong Kong.

With beautiful waters, scenery, islands, coral reefs and easy sailing conditions, the cruising industry in this region has been developing rather rapidly in the past few years in each of the individual countries only on an ad hoc basis, with significant strides, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia, where the cruising market is now a major tourism income earner.

All the countries, from Myanmar in the north-west, down to Singapore and up to Hong Kong and the Philippines in the north east, are connected in this wide arc of beautiful waters and we feel that it is time we promote cruising on a regional basis.

The symposium will address what is required to make this Asian region a worthy successor of developed cruising playgrounds like Turkey, France and the Caribbean.

We know that the market is here, but the challenge is how to make it grow.

Accordingly, the symposium hopes to address this, and will fully involve government and private sector speakers from all the participating countries, with the common aim to grow the potential of cruising and thereby encourage tourism.

To do so, we will need to ensure:

Our waters are accessible (with a pan Asian uniform system of rules and regulations and minimal governmental red tape);

Attractive (moorings, berths, boat financing, chartering, boat sales etc.); safe (the question of piracy MUST be fully addressed in an open and transparent manner).

Many Malaysian VIPs invited for the symposium include:

Y.A.B Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia, who will launch and give the opening keynote address

DYMM Sultan of Selangor, as Guest of Honour for the opening reception

Y.B. Datuk Dr. Michael Toyad, Minister of Tourism, who will deliver one of the speeches at official launch

YAM Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah, who will officiate the closing of the symposium with a thank you speech

YA Bhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, Guest of Honour for the closing dinner

* All the Tourism Ministers and their delegations from the participating countries will be invited.

Speakers and subjects include:

Key Note Speaker – Y.A.B Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia (Invited – pending answer)

Captain Yilmaz Dagci, Advisor, Chamber of Shipping DTO) Turkey and TUDEV, Turkish Maritime Education Foundation; founder and honorary life member of TURMEPA (Turkish Marine Environment Protection)

Yachting and Marine Tourism Development in Turkey:

Timothy R. Keogh, Director, Marina Management Services, Inc – marina development projects in the USA and the Caribbean markets

How the Yangon to Manila Bay Cruising Region can learn from the successes and failures of the Caribbean:

Mr. Low Teo Ping, President, Singapore Sailing Federation & VP of ISAF, the International Sailing Federation, President of the Singapore Sailing Federation and member of the Singapore National Olympic Council

Encouraging an Open Sea Policy:

Mr. Francis Lee, Chairman, Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle, Marine Tourism Sub-Working Group and President of Raffles Marina

The need for a uniform set of laws, regulations and rules to facilitate borderless cruising:

Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, Director, The Piracy Centre, ICC International Maritime Bureau, UK

Piracy issues and awareness of government agencies; providing the right feedback to global boating:

Mr. Bruce Maxwell, former Managing Editor and publisher of Asian Boating, Managing Editor of Asia-Pacific Boating and Yachts Asia-Pacific, and now an Asia-Pacific correspondent for Yachts International, Yachting World and Ocean.

Piracy issues and scare stories - are Asian waters safe for yachting?

A panel of experts from Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian & Philippine coast guards will speak and answer questions from the floor in view of importance of Piracy issues to growth of this regional area as cruising playground.

Full information at: http://www.symb2005.com/index.html

*Amended by Sail-World