Pakistan Keen To Advance Trade, Technology Cooperation With Malaysia

By Noor Bakhtiar Ahmad

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- Pakistan is seeking to strengthen its long-standing partnership with Malaysia by expanding cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture and emerging technologies to achieve mutual economic growth and development.

Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad is eager to benefit from Malaysia’s experience in areas such as information technology, artificial intelligence and vocational training, while sharing its own expertise to pursue projects that would bring tangible benefits to both nations.

“Therefore, today I want to make it publicly known that Pakistan wants to join hands with Malaysia, not only to benefit from your experience, but to have joint ventures and mutually beneficial projects where Malaysian and Pakistani expertise can come together,” he said.

He said this during a joint press conference with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim following a bilateral meeting that covered a wide range of issues, including trade facilitation, investment promotion and people-to-people exchanges.

Shehbaz said Malaysia’s impressive economic progress and focus on innovation, technology and sustainable development under Anwar’s MADANI vision serve as an inspiration for developing nations like Pakistan to emulate and collaborate with.

“Your GDP is growing at a very satisfactory level. Your global trade is growing, you have a positive trade surplus and, of course, your exports are growing.

“These are the areas where Pakistan stands to benefit from Malaysia’s experience,” he said.

Shehbaz said Pakistan stands ready to work closely with Malaysia in sectors where both countries hold comparative advantages, including agriculture, food processing, information technology and technical and vocational education and training.

“Agriculture is one area, IT is another area, and of course in the field of vocational and skill training, Pakistan is doing wonderfully well.

“We have thousands of students here in Malaysia, and about 150,000 Pakistanis contributing to nation-building efforts,” he said.

The prime minister also expressed appreciation for Malaysia’s decision to allocate a US$200 million quota for meat imports from Pakistan, describing it as a significant step in enhancing halal trade and broadening market opportunities for Pakistani exporters.

“I am eternally grateful to you for your generous announcement, but let me make it clear that this quota will be regulated by market price mechanisms and all halal certification requirements of Malaysian authorities.

“We will make all possible efforts to meet all your conditionalities,” he said.

He added that Pakistan aims not only to meet the quota but also to expand it in future.

“On that basis, we will, insya-Allah, achieve not only this quota of US$200 million, but in time to come, it will increase because when consumers are happy, the sky is the limit,” he said.

Shehbaz Sharif is currently on a three-day official visit to Malaysia at the invitation of Anwar, in a reciprocal gesture to the Malaysian leader’s official visit to Pakistan in October 2024, reflecting the deepening ties between the two nations.

Following the elevation of bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership in March 2019, Malaysia and Pakistan, which established diplomatic ties in 1957, recorded total trade of RM8.07 billion (US$1.76 billion) in 2024, marking a 25.5 per cent increase from the previous year. 

Malaysia’s main exports to Pakistan include palm oil, petroleum and chemical products, while imports from Pakistan comprise agricultural goods, textiles, apparel, footwear and petroleum products.

-- BERNAMA