KARACHI: Malaysia and Pakistan through enhanced cooperation and joint initiatives can advance in various social and economic fields. Bilateral cooperation between the two countries is not only confined to political and economic spheres but also in other areas such as education, tourism, defence and technical assistance, said Malaysian Council General Khairul Nazran Abd Rehman here on Friday.
He was speaking at a press conference at a local hotel in connection with celebrations of Malaysia’s National Day. He was flanked by Commercial Counsellor of Malaysia Johari Minal and the Immigration Counsellor Ms Zawiyah Binti Maulud, and Azeem Qureshi.
The Malaysian Consul General said that Malaysia celebrates its national day on September 16 to make the formation of Malaysia with joining of Sabah and Sarwak with Malaya. Malaya got independence from British on August 31, 1957.
Malaysia and Pakistan enjoyed warm and friendly relations since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1957, he said. Both the countries shared similar position on regional and international issues through their common membership in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and G-77 organisation. In addition, Pakistan is also a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN and a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
He said Pakistan had remained one of the Malaysia’s largest trading partner among South Asian countries. The balance of trade has consistently been in Malaysia’s favour. Both countries need to diversify goods beyond palm oil and cereals to increase their trade. Malaysia and Pakistan signed Free Trade Agreement on 8 November
2007 in Kuala Lumpur. It sis Pakistan’s first comprehensive FTA for trade in goods, services. This was Malaysia’s first bilateral FTA with any South Asian country.
In 2017, the bilateral trade increased by 3.5% to dollars 1.34 billion from dollars 1.34 billion in 2016. Pakistan had also emerged as an important market for palm kernel cake, which is used as an ingredient for animal feeds. In 2017, Pakistan imported 0.3 million tones of palm Kernel cake and became the fourth largest importer of the commodity after New Zealand, European Union and South Korea.
Malaysian Commercial Counsellor said that Malaysia had been able to keep the prices of palm products competitive by increasing productivity.
On May 28, 2007 Malaysia and Pakistan had signed a memorandum of understanding on Cooperation in the Field of tourism. In 2017, tourist
arrivals from Pakistan figured 53,453 — a decrease of 8.5% as compared to 58,388 arrivals in 2016. Malaysia hopes more tourists from Pakistan would choose Malaysia for their holidays. The Immigration Attache said Malaysia had very liberal visa policy for Pakistanis.