KUNMING: Malaysia intends to strengthen border control as a matter of priority and has discussed getting help from China in this aspect.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today China had agreed to the possibility of a transfer of technology of advanced border control systems.
He said the matter was raised with Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun and Communist Party of China Political and Legal Affairs Secretary Meng Jianzhu during his meetings with them earlier this week in Beijing and they had agreed to the idea.
"That is why I am here (in Kunming). (Those meetings were) on matters of policy. My meetings here are on operational matters," he told Malaysian media after a meeting with Yunnan province Public Security Department deputy director-general Guo Bao.
He said Bao had agreed to host a delegation from Malaysia, led by National Security Council director-general General (Rtd) Tan Sri Zulkifeli Md Zin, some time in the next two months.
The delegation, which will likely comprise representatives of the council, National Border Security Agency, Immigration Department, armed forces and police force, are expected to stay a week in an effort to learn all it can.
Zahid said Yunnan province had an international border of about 4,060km, which it shared with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
"In comparison, the Malaysian-Thai border runs more than 700km. Yet Yunnan and Malaysia have similar border control problems," he said.
The three border controls problems, he said, which the NSC delegation will focus on, were technology used in border security, narcotics control and the illegal crossing of militants from an autonomous region into Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
"Even though we have the Border Security Agency, there is nothing wrong with leaning from Yunnan. To me, border control goes beyond just having walls along borders, but an integrated system with advanced equipment and a scientific approach. We need something like what Yunnan has."
Asked to elaborate on what sort of advanced systems Yunnan employed, Zahid said the border control included the use of drones, satellite systems, high-defiition (HD) closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras as well as HD tracking CCTV cameras.
"All we have along the Malaysian-Thai border is barbed-wire fencing... that is out of the 1960s era."
Zahid said though Malaysia was interested in such technology before, it was too costly.
"Now we can discuss a transfer of technology. Perhaps we can get such technology on a BLMT basis -- build, lease, manage, transfer. (That would mean) it would be a lower cost in the long run. The repayment could be long term," he said.
Meanwhile, Bao said Yunnan has invited Malaysian police officers to attend its police academy to learn about how its officers tackled various problems, including border security, drugs and terrorism.
"(Besides lectures at the academy) we will alo send the Malaysian officers to police stations to have field experience. This is a two-way learning process... they learn from us, but we will also learn from their experiences," he said.
Because of its long borders with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, Yunnan had in the past faced problems with drug smuggling and illegal crossings, including that of militants.
Zahid had, earlier this week, mentioned that Malaysia had arrested 28 members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, based in the province, who had been on transit in Malaysia, on their way to Turkey. These militants had planned to then cross the border from Turkey to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq.
Intelligence on the militants had been received from Chinese officials after they were believed to have crossed the border in Yunnan.