Mr. Chairman, Ladies, Gentlemen, Graduates and Students,

Each year when I come to this graduation ceremony I am happy to see more and more young people from our rural areas graduating from this College equipped to play their part in the private sector of our national economy in business, commerce and industry. This graduation ceremony today is different from others in the past because I have an added duty to perform in opening a second new wing in this College.

I hope that now this College has two wings the Principal and his staff will not get too many bright ideas and try and fly too high but keep the teaching and ideology of this College very much down to earth with a practical approach in all things.

I say this becuse in this present day world the sphere of business, commerce and industry is highly competitive and for any of you who graduate from this College to really succeed in business you must continually bear in mind that theory and high-flown ideas are not the ingredients of success in business. The only ingredient of success in business is hard work coupled with a dogged determination to succed supported at all times by a practical matter-of-fact approach. But you must not leave this College thinking that having acquired professional diploma that success in business is automatic, and is your right.

I myself was trained professionally as a lawyer and any professionally trained man in the world will agree with me that the completion of one's training and the obtaining of a diploma or a degree is in no way the end of hard work. No, it is only the beginning of the beginning and to succeed, particularly as I say, in this competitive world of business, if, all of you have worked hard in this college to obtain your qualifications then I can tell you that, without a doubt, when you start working in the various business firms, to succeed you have to work twice as hard.

Both this graduation ceremony and the opening of this new wing is part and parcel of the main objective of our First Malaysia Plan. In the field of education our aim is to intensify and expand the development of human resources in our country. My government is very much aware of the vital role of the human factor in our national economic development.

As you all know, there are three essential requirements in economic development. First funds, second the development of natural resources and third, the most important, the development of our human resources because without this human development, the first two cannot be utilised to the full.

In Pre-Independent days the government's education policy was generally geared merely to fulfill the needs of training sufficient people to staff the public service but nowadays, when times have changed, my government fully realises the necessity in all aspects of our Five Year Education Plan to afford facilities for training not only for the Public Sector but also for the Private Sector of business, commerce and industry.

Government has taken the initiative in this, as has been proved by each ceremony in this College, year by year, but I would still like to see the Private Sector itself, by which I mean, all business firms and industries in this country, getting together and playing their part in this very important aspect of development in order to utilise all human resources in the business world.

I remember word for word what I said at this College's graduation ceremony in 1965, and I will repeat the same words I used. "I would like to see more private firms, setting aside a little of their own initiative, so that, they too in the Private Sector, can play their own profits, and getting together to set up small business training institutions on their part in helping our country in this great aim in human investment and skill so necessary for the future economic advancement of Malaysia."

I cannot help but say that I am disappointed with the response to this suggestion so far. This is of vital importance in view of our national policy to Malaysianise the Private Sector as far as possible.

However, as you already know, it is the intention of my Government to backstop the National Development Planning Committee with a Private Sector Advisory Committee of which the membership will be drawn from the leaders of the main business and commercial interests in this Country. I can foresee that one of the first tasks of this newly established body will be to take action in the Private Sector with a view to providing more intensive opportunities for training Malaysians in keeping with our National Policy to Malaysianise the Private Sector.

Although committees are the bug-bear of twentieth century governments, nevertheless in this case, I do feel that there will be many advantages in back-stopping the National Planning Committee with an extra team with membership drawn from business, commerce and industry. I think this would have a beneficial effect in further coordinating the development process, encourage the flow of new ideas which might otherwise remain dormant, and have added effect on making all concerned both in the Public and Private Sector acquire a sense of mutual participation in the progress of Malaysia.

I am aware that there has been some misunderstanding on the part of foreign investors regarding Malaysianisation in the Private Sector, and I do not think it will be out of place if I repeat my views and explanations on our policy.

My government is fully aware of the practical difficulties of implementing our policy of Malaysianisation in the Private Sector because this does not mean just a mechanical substitution of an expatriate face for that of a Malaysian.

In implementing this policy to Malaysianise the Private Sector there must be no lowering of standards, and if a Malaysian-is to take the place of an expatriate in the Private Sector, he must be trained in his skills and profession well up to, and even above, the standard required.

There must be no lowering of standards and no drop in efficiency because no outside investor is going to put money into Malaysia if it is forced by immigration law to accept to lower standard of local employees.

So, therefore, we must all be rational and reasonable in our policy, and our people must train and prepare themselves, with hard work and study to maintain the highest standard possible in their individual tasks, and then and only then will our Malaysianisation programme for the Private Sector not only be accepted by external investors, but will be welcomed by them, because they too stand to gain by employing local people of a high standard, rather than having to bring in from afar, at greater expense skilled personnel from other countries.

Let me for a moment say a few words about what my government intends to do for our people through the agency of MARA.

I was so happy the other day during the opening of the new MARA Headquarters for which I changed the system of such official opening and, instead of inviting all VIPs in town, we invited a crosssection of the leaders at kampong level throughout the whole country to be our VIPs for three days.-450 rural leaders chosen for their ability in their own sphere. They were given intensive briefings on how they and all the other rural people could make the maximum use of the facilities offered by MARA to help them participate more fully in business, commerce and industry and thus by their own efforts raise their own standard of living. This three-day exercise which was so successful and met with such enthusiastic response that it is my intention to repeat it every few months so that all rural leaders throughout the whole of Malaysia will be given the opportunity of seeing for themselves what use can be made of the facilities which the Alliance Government has to offer our rural people.

This College is not only part of the overall educational policy of my Government. It is also closely related to what Encik Mansor has said in his speech in reference to the Government's drive to implement the resolutions of the Kongress Ekonomi Bumiputera held in June, 1965. In line with the spirit of the Kongress the present enrolment of several hundreds of students will be quadrupled when the new Polytechnic at Batu Tiga is completed.

Now, let me mention a few of the other facilities. We have, under implementation a plan to establish bazaars in conjunction with our shop-house programme in towns where our Bumiputra businessmen require proper premises to carry on their trades.

Also under implementation is MARA's supervised Credit Finance Programmes which is backed up with technical and professional Advisory services, so that the maximum assistance can be obtained by those Bumiputra businessmen who are already in business as well as those who are launching themselves for the first time into business ventures.

Furthermore, from time to time, it is the intention that MARA will "adopt" selected Bumiputra businesses and guide them through the initial stages of their existence.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, my special message today is to you lucky young graduates- during your stay in this College neither the College nor MARA nor the Government has let you down. It is my fervent hope that as you take up your respective tasks in this competitive world of commerce, you will work hard, be deligent and be determined not to let the country down.