DURING a telephonic conversation with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif underscored Pakistan’s desire to forge a broad-based relationship with Malaysia with robust political dialogue and trade and economic linkages.
The two leaders agreed to further enhance bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest including trade and investment.
It is a matter of satisfaction that the linkages between the two countries are getting stronger over time which exhibit desire on both the sides to exploit the untouched sectors to shore up their trade and economic relations.
Doing so will indeed bring peoples of both the countries closer together and open new vistas of cooperation.
The people of Pakistan in fact see the development of Malaysia with great admiration and really regard the vision of their leaders because of which the country is now ranked amongst the top Islamic economy in the world.
Pakistan can learn a lot from the Malaysian experience, especially in the field of tourism and edible oil production.
The very visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad back in 2019 to Islamabad marked a beginning of new era in the bilateral relationship as understanding was reached at that time to promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural products, food retail, halal products, automotive parts, energy, science and technology and telecommunication.
It was the result of this visit that Proton has started production of automobiles in Pakistan. We believe it is the time to carry forward that momentum with the new Malaysian leadership to achieve progress on the agreements/MoUs signed in the past.
For instance, Pakistan has a huge potential in halal food which can be fully exploited with collaboration of Malaysia.
Then, Malaysia had also evinced interest in JF-17 thunder fight jets. Given the development of our defence production industries, we can meet their defence requirements.
It is really important to enhance the level of engagement at different levels to transform this relationship into a mutually beneficial strong economic partnership.
