KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s upcoming working visit to Pakistan will go a long way in generating momentum to further enhance political and diplomatic relations between the two countries, said its High Commissioner to Malaysia Syed Ahsan Raza Shah today.
Briefing the local media on the Malaysian Prime Minister’s working visit to Islamabad next week, he said, Anwar’s visit to the South Asian country beginning Oct 2 until Oct 4 would also boost cultural and economic ties between Malaysia and Pakistan.
“We just want our Malaysian brothers and sisters to know that this important visit is taking place after the gap of a few years and that the people of Pakistan eagerly await His Excellency’s arrival in Pakistan,” he told the media here.
Despite the excellent political and diplomatic ties both countries have enjoyed, the envoy opined that both sides need to put in more effort to enhance bilateral trade between the two countries which currently stands at US$1.5 billion per-year.
According to Syed Ahsan, Pakistan and Malaysia need to greatly enhance their bilateral trade as current numbers are simply “not enough.”
“We have very good commercial and trade relations, our bilateral trade is US$1.5 billion a year. But it is not enough. I think it does not commensurate with the level of our political relations and it needs to be greatly enhanced,” he said.
Malaysia’s major export to the country, he said, were palm oil, machineries and electrical products, while its imports from Pakistan were mostly rice, vegetables, textiles and leather.
He said both countries have a free trade agreement called the Malaysia-Pakistan Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (MPCEPA), inked in 2007, that he said is due for a review.
“So we are already in negotiations between MITI (Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry) and the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan to revisit the agreement, to update the lists.
“They have a joint Review Committee, which will also meet very soon, and Insya-Allah, that agreement will be revised very soon, and it will also be discussed during the Prime Minister’s visit to Pakistan,” he said.
Syed Ahsan expressed hope that the volume of trade between Pakistan and Malaysia would be significantly increased following the visit and was confident that Anwar’s trip would provide the necessary momentum to drive this growth.
Malaysia, he noted, is one of the major investors in Pakistan, with Proton having established operations there several years ago, along with other Malaysian investors in the information technology and other sectors.
He said besides enhancing ties in the commercial and trade realm, the high commissioner also hoped for more people-to-people relations, adding that the South Asian country has become an increasingly popular destination for Malaysia tourists seeking mountainous adventures, and called for more direct flights between major cities in the two countries.
According to him, Malaysia is not only popular among Pakistan’s job seekers but also topped the list for Pakistanis students seeking to further their studies, with more than 4,000 Pakistanis choosing the Southeast Asian country as their preferred higher education destination, with the total number of Pakistanis in Malaysia now exceeding 175,000.
Next week’s working visit to Pakistan would be Anwar’s first since assuming office in Nov 2022.
The Prime Minister will have a packed itinerary throughout his stay in Islamabad, including a courtesy call on Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidential Palace and a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Shehbaz Sharif.
Anwar is also slated to meet Pakistan’s captains of industry.
