Malaysia said on Sunday it will provide help in Islamic banking, industrial workers' training and restructuring of Islamic religious schools to assist Thailand in developing its troubled southern region. "They have asked us to provide the training in the fields which can create job opportunities and in the restructuring of the Islamic religious schools, by training their teachers," the national Bernama news agency quoted Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying. Last Thursday, Malaysia and Thailand signed a Joint Development Strategy for the border region which covers road links, trade, tourism, agriculture, energy, education, human resources and disaster relief. Bernama quoted Syed Hamid as saying that infrastructure such as roads and bridges must be built first to expedite development in the border area. "The proposed development projects connecting Southern Thailand at Sungai Golok and Bukit Bunga in (the Malaysian state of) Kelantan as well as several other border areas under the joint action plan will be implemented," the minister said.
