UAE invited to participate in Bandar Malaysia, says PM

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates has been invited to participate in the soon-to-be-revived Bandar Malaysia project, says the Prime Minister.

Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this was among matters raised during his meeting with UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

“We are currently fine-tuning the Bandar Malaysia project plan. Once we are ready, we will officially invite the UAE to participate,” he told the Malaysian media on Monday (Sept 25).

Ismail Sabri is on a four-day working visit to the UAE.

The Prime Minister said the Economic Planning Unit and the Finance Ministry were looking into this, where the development of Bandar Malaysia would be in several packages.

He said another item brought up during his audience with Sheikh Mohammed was food security, where Malaysia had offered the UAE to carry out reverse investment on agriculture.

“The UAE aims to be the agriculture export hub to Africa and we believe our offer for reverse investment will complement their plan,” the Prime Minister added.

The two leaders have agreed to form a joint working committee to see how this could be materialised.

Malaysia had also made reverse investment offers to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and also Turkiye.

The Prime Minister also said that during his visit to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), there were informal discussions on potential cooperation that could be explored with the company.

He said that Malaysian companies were interested in other ventures with Adnoc aside from oil and gas, including production of fertilizers.

“This is an area of business potential that we can explore,” he said.

Adnoc is the state-owned oil company of the UAE and is the world’s 12th largest oil company by production.