Malaysian PM a student of Allama Iqbal’s poetry: HC Azhar Mazlan
High Commissioner of Malaysia Dato’ AzharMazlan and his wife Puan Amelia Amani hosted a dinner for the prominent business representatives at the High Commission and briefed them about the huge potential of the Malaysian market and urged them to make Malaysia as their next destination of investment and trade.
A large number of business leaders, heads of companies and investors, both male and female, attended the reception and showed a desire for growing B2B ties.
The dinner was in fact a follow-up of the recent engagements held between the Malaysian companies and business heads with their Pakistani counterparts during Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s three-day visit to Pakistan (October 2-4, 2024).
Dato’ AzharMazlan said that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit was a defining moment for him as High Commissioner of Malaysia and contributed to strengthening of bilateral ties in diverse fields ranging from business, education and tourism.
A number of MoUs were signed on G2G and B2B levels and both Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif and Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim showed a commitment to take the existing bilateral trade to new levels.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, he said is very fond of Pakistan and has in fact visited the country on a number of occasions in the past. It is pertinent to mention here that as Pakistan is marking the ‘Iqbal Day’ today (Nov 9), the high commissioner informed that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during one of his past visits to Pakistan picked a book on AllamaIqbal from a Karachi bookshop or library and since then he became a student and great fan of Iqbal’s poetry.
Apart from libraries and bookshops, Prime Minister Ibrahim is also familiar with Peshawar’s ‘weapon market’ the high commissioner said on a lighter note.
DatoAzhar also expressed gratitude to the government of Pakistan for bestowing the highest civilian award ‘Nishan-e-Pakistan’ on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The prime minister was also awarded Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) where he also delivered a talk and it again contributes to bringing the nations closer.
About the ample business opportunities between the two countries, the high commissioner said that his office would welcome any business query from the Pakistani business leaders ‘captains of industry’ and was ready to facilitate them regarding investment or trade in Malaysia.
Next year, Malaysia is going to head the ASEAN and plans a number of business-promotional events with the local business community, he said.
We can engage the ASEAN Business Council to reach out to the business stakeholders here in Pakistan, he further said.
Pakistan, he said despite current economic difficulties has the potential to thrive and its Stock Exchange has recently shown great signs.
Keeping in view Pakistan’s location, Malaysian companies are looking towards Pakistan in many areas of collaboration for example energy, Artificial Intelligence, information communication technology and Halal Market. Traditionally, Pakistan is among the top 5 countries that imports palm oil from Malaysia he said.
Explaining the huge potential of Halal Market industry, he said globally it was US$3 trillion annually. Here in Pakistan Malaysian companies can step in for industrial development with particular focus on Halal Market industry.
Malaysia plans to import $100 million worth of halal meat and 100,000 tons of Basmati rice from Pakistan, he said. The High Commissioner also highlighted the recent opening of a MATRADE office in Karachi to further facilitate business engagement for both sides and encouraged the Pakistani business leaders to consider Malaysia as a gateway to the ASEAN region, which has a market of 680 million people—40pc to 50pc youth.
A Q&A session followed the high commissioner’s briefing and the business leaders from Pakistan showed their keenness to invest in Malaysia and establish business there.
