NEW ZEALAND-MALAYAN TRADE TALKS PROPOSED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND-MALAYAN TRADE TALKS PROPOSED

WELLINGTON, January 20.

Malaya and New Zealand will soon start trade talks with a view to signing a formal trade agreement, the Malayan Prime Minister (Tunku Abdul Rahman) disclosed in Wellington today. He said the New Zealand Government had already sent the Malayan Government a draft trade agreement for consideration.

Replying to reporters’ questions at a press conference, the Prime Minister said the talks would start after Malaya concluded trade talks with Japan next month.

Australia is the only country which has so far signed a trade agreement with Malaya. The Tunku said he would also like to see a cultural agreement between Malaya and New Zealand. He hopes to send the Malayan Minister of Education to New Zealand for talks with the Government. The Tunku said he would also like to see Malay taught to New Zealand students. He will discuss this in his talks with the Prime Minister (Mr Nash). “Malay is spoken by 100,000,000 people in Malaya, Indonesia and New Guinea. I think you would find it a useful language.” The Malayan Government would be pleased to send teachers to teach Malay in New Zealand universities, he added. Tax Troubles The Tunku told reporters that taxation was one of Malaya’s biggest current headaches. “The per capita earnings of our people are reported to be the biggest in Asia, but out of a population of 7,000,000 only about 30,000 pay tax,” he said. “A lot of hawkers don’t pay a single cent in income tax yet they are earning more than some of our civil servants.

“I know a chap who has two sons studying abroad. He has two cars and buys a new one every year. He bets in hundreds at the races. Yet he doesn’t pay any tax. There are many like that,” the Tunku said. He said the Malayan Government had just had an investigation made by an American taxation expert and his report had now been completed.