KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): Starting his first day as minister of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Darell Leiking is putting "making Malaysia really, really big in this industry and also in trade" on top of his agenda.

Darell, who is Member of Parliament for Penampang and Parti Warisan Sabah deputy president, was speaking to reporters here today after the official handover ceremony by former MITI minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, better known as Tok Pa. Darell has pledged to do better than his predecessors, as well as for the ministry to be more open with its communication.

"We want to have a new culture where we are able to always communicate with each other. Tok Pa has promised that he will always be available if we have questions or want to seek advice and guidance from him," Darell said.

On the issue of overlapping duties among agencies, he said: "We need a little more time (to study the matter). We will have to (first) discuss with the prime minster [as to] what he intends to do with the respective portfolios that have been announced. We will have to review it and see if we need to add or reduce (these agencies)," he added.

"We came here anticipating that we have a lot of work to do. We had a good internal meeting this morning on the main responsibilities and challenges ahead for MITI," said deputy MITI minister Dr Ong Kian Ming.

Meanwhile, MITI secretary-general Datuk Isham Ishak said the ministry will be announcing "some initiatives" for the public soon, but did not elaborate.

On the positive response to the recent opening of the first Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's ofice for South-East Asia here, Ong said it serves as a good investment for Malaysian and for Chinese companies.

"We can see from the positive dialogue (Alibaba Group executive chairman) [that] Jack Ma had with our prime minister and finance minister, which suggests that we would welcome many more of these types of investments here," Ong added.