KUALA LUMPUR: On his last official day as a Cabinet Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said that he will continue to serve the country in any capacity he can.
During the Concorde Club meeting, the outgoing Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) Minister shared that he had expressed such intentions to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“The Prime Minister also mentioned yesterday during the event that it will be announced. So we wait until Dec 3.
“But I have to admit that I did talk to the PM before, and I did state that I am willing to support in any capacity... to support the government, to support the country. But I don't know what the Prime Minister has decided,” he said during a press conference at Wisma Bernama here Tuesday (Dec 2).
On Monday, Anwar said he will announce a new role for Tengku Zafrul on Wednesday (Dec 3) as the latter still has responsibilities to carry out.
Tengku Zafrul, who has served as a senator since 2020, completes his six-year tenure in the Dewan Negara on Dec 2.
Reflecting on his role as a minister in recent years, Tengku Zafrul noted that it has been a challenging year, considering Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean and the ongoing US tariff negotiations.
“To say it's an exciting year is an understatement. But at the same time, we are lucky. Personally, I'm also lucky to have a strong team to support me and the ministry and the government to navigate these challenges.
“The US and Malaysia agreement of reciprocal trade (ART) is a very important agreement that we have signed with the US. It is important in the sense that it protects our market access but also protects the livelihoods of millions of Malaysians.
“I think our conscience is clear. We think we did the best we could. But having said that, we will continue to engage the US and continue to diversify to other markets and strengthen our companies itself. So this is where the other challenge is to ensure that Malaysian companies remain competitive,” he added.
Addressing talks with China following ART, Tengku Zafrul said the Chinese government has proposed an MOU to further strengthen the collaboration on trade and investment between the two countries.
While the details of the MOU are still very preliminary, he said the parameters are to look at how Malaysia and China can improve on bringing investments to both countries.
“And also looking at strategic sectors that they feel Malaysia can also support Chinese companies to play a role here in Malaysia and across Asean. So it's still very preliminary (the MOU),” he said.
Yesterday, Tengku Zafrul told the Dewan Rakyat that Beijing has voiced its concerns as one of Malaysia’s strategic partners in trade, on the Malaysia-United States ART.
He said Malaysia has also sent a team to China to provide further explanations on the ART.
On his future endeavours, Tengku Zafrul said he is committed to serve as the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president.
He said he has always been involved with the national sport and is planning to attend the SEA Games in Thailand.
“I will be sending off our badminton players on Thursday to the SEA Games. I'm going on a weekend where I'm confident a few of our players will be in the finals for the SEA Games that will be on Dec 14.
“I hope to be there. And yes, the answer is I would like to be, and I want to be, and I'm committed to be more involved in badminton as well going forward,” he added.
The Concorde Club is an informal group of editors and senior journalists who meet with politicians and key policy makers.
Previous guests of the Concorde Club, led by Bernama Chairman Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, include Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Anthony Loke and Nurul Izzah Anwar.
