PM to visit UAE, Saudi Arabia in October

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) on Thursday (Sept 21) said he had been invited to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia in October.

Anwar said he would be in UAE from Oct 5 to 6 for a working visit before attending the inaugural ASEAN- Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Oct 16.

"UAE and Saudi have much stronger collaboration with us. We hope they will invest more,” said Anwar who was here to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

During a question and answer session after delivering his keynote address "Regaining Malaysia’s Lead in Asia" at the Invest Malaysia New York event on Thursday, Anwar said there was growing interest from GCC members in Asean.

"We (Asean) have growing interest from Saudi, UAE and Qatar," he said.

On Tuesday (Sept 19), Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir after a meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of UNGA, said from January to April 2023, total trade between the two countries rose by 5.7%, from RM11.25bil to RM11.89bil.

During a visit to Kuala Lumpur in May, UAE Trade Minister Thani Al Zeyoudi said that Malaysian investments in the UAE stood at US$150mil, and UAE investments in Malaysia had reached US$220mil.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, was Malaysia’s largest trading partner among the West Asian countries, with US$10.26bil in total bilateral trade recorded between the two countries in 2022, an increase of 159.2% from 2021.

Among the prominent projects the Kingdom has in Malaysia was the Pengerang Integrated Complex in Johor, through Saudi Aramco. - Bernama