I wish to congratulate the Pahlawan volunteers in initiating this Visit Malaysia CyberCampaign and the "Think Holiday, Think Malaysia!" competition to support the National Economic Recovery Plan. I am also encouraged by their creative use of the Internet to help Malaysia tell its story to the world.

I believe this CyberCampaign will not only promote Malaysia, and over time help contribute to the world's knowledge of us, but it will also put the spotlight on the extensive application of the Internet as a marketing and promotional channel. The inclusion of schools and colleges will further help advance the Government's effort in increasing IT literacy in this country. Communicating via e-mail is one of the immediate benefits of the Internet architecture; it is not only convenient and speedy but is much more cost effective.

Smart use of the Internet will also help us promote our tourism industry, giving us latitude that we could not have before. With multimedia capability, our tour operators, especially the smaller ones, can now attain a powerful presence where they can outdo the bigger players who have greater resources at their command. This is a major breakthrough and opportunity for the small and medium size players.

The tourism industry is the second largest revenue earner for this country. With the investments in the physical infrastructure, the stage is now set for private sector operators to step up their promotions to effectively utilise these capabilities and facilitate the growth of this sector. Global tourism is still growing steadily in spite of slowdowns and recession in other economic sectors. We will do well to accelerate our effort in this direction to benefit from the opportunities in this global trend.

DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD