PM ANWAR THANKS SAUDI GOVT AGAIN FOR INVITATION

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed his thanks again tonight over the Saudi Arabian government’s invitation to visit the country after just having been appointed Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister.

His official visit to Saudi Arabia together with his delegation from March 22 to 24 was his first visit to a non-ASEAN country since being taking over the country’s leadership on Nov 24 last year.

In a Facebook post tonight, he shared that bilateral ties between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, including business, banking and Islamic matters, were very well.

“I believe cooperation between both countries will continue to be strengthened in various fields and benefit our people,” he posted.

During his three-day visit there, the prime minister met with Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) secretary-general Hissein Brahim Taha and Muslim World League (MWL) secretary-general Sheikh Dr Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa.

Anwar also managed to meet with the Saudi Arabian business community at the Islamic Development Bank headquarters and witnessed three agreements involving Malaysian and Saudi Arabian companies.

He and his delegation also managed to perform the umrah in Mecca and visited Medinah, while breaking fast with Malaysians living in both cities along with Jeddah. 

Saudi Arabia was the biggest trading partner, third largest export destination and biggest importer for Malaysia in the Middle East region with a total two-way trade volume of RM45.52 billion (US$10.26 billion) in 2022, a 159.2 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

From that total, Malaysia’s exports to the country rose by 43.8 per cent to RM7.28 billion (US$1.66 billion), while imports from the country rose by 205.8 per cent to RM38.24 billion (US$8.60 billion).

-- BERNAMA