KUALA LUMPUR: The Governor-General of New Zealand, Dame Cindy Kiro, today visited the Orang Asli community in Gombak, here, in conjunction with a programme organised by the Jungle School Gombak Malaysia.
The programme was held at Alang Manja Resort, Gombak, in conjunction with Kiro’s maiden four-day state visit to Malaysia beginning Oct 1.
During the visit, Kiro also sampled Orang Asli dishes such as jagung parut and lepat tepung and observed how they were made.
The governor-general of New Zealand then joined the traditional Orang Asli dance before visiting one of the traditional houses and a mini exhibition about the Jungle School Gombak Malaysia.
At the end of the visit, Kiro and her delegation thanked the host with a Maori song.
On Monday, Kiro in her speech at the state banquet at Istana Negara, said she looked forward to learning more about the indigenous peoples in Malaysia and how both countries can work more closely in various fields.
She said indigenous exchanges were taking place across a range of areas such as health, education, tourism and biodiversity.
This is Kiro’s maiden visit to Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region since assuming office on Oct 21, 2021.
The last state visit by a governor-general of New Zealand was by Dame Patsy Reddy, from Dec 5 to 8, 2017.
New Zealand is Malaysia’s second largest trading partner in the Pacific region, with total trade between the two nations reaching RM6.32 billion (US$1.42 billion) as of June this year, an increase of 15.3 per cent from RM5.48 billion (US$1.27 billion) recorded in the corresponding period in 2022. -Bernama
