Malaysia's Works Minister S. Samy Vellu left for Kolkata (Calcutta), India Wednesday night to attend a four-day 2006 Partnership Summit starting later today, the Malaysian news agency "Bernama" reported. The 12th summit is organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries with the theme "Shaping Growth, Nurturing Development", according to a statement from the minister's office here yesterday. The conference is aimed at improving business ties between India and the outside world, said the statement. Samy Vellu would be delivering his keynote address at a plenary session entitled "Partnering in Infrastructure: India and Malaysia. The Road Ahead." The statement said the conference could strengthen the existing good relationship and cooperation between Malaysia and India as there had been a lot of projects currently being undertaken by Malaysian contractors in India. To date, Malaysian companies had completed 47 projects in India worth RM7.4 billion and 11 projects worth RM3.3 billion were currently carried out to give a total of 58 projects worth RM10.7 billion. Highway construction formed 79 percent of the total number of projects.
