PM Anwar Arrives In Gyeongju For APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting

From Nor Baizura Basri

GYEONGJU (South Korea), Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim arrived here tonight for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM), which starts tomorrow until Nov 1.

The prime minister, who arrived at the hotel at about 9:05 pm local time here (8:05 pm Malaysian time), was accompanied by a motorcade and received by the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz and the Malaysian delegation.

Earlier, the aircraft carrying Anwar and the Malaysian delegation landed at Gimhae Air Base, Gimhae International Airport, Busan, at around 8 pm local time on Thursday.

The prime minister was received by  Lim Kimo, head of the APEC Preparatory2025, Gyeongju vice governor Hojun Song and Commander of the 5th Air Wing Brigadier General Kang Geun-shin.

On the Malaysian side, Anwar was welcomed by Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and the Malaysian ambassador to South Korea, Datuk Mohd Zamruni Khalid.

Tomorrow, a busy schedule awaits as the prime minister is expected to deliver Malaysia’s interventions during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Dialogue with Guests event. Anwar is expected to stress the importance of inclusiveness in strengthening the supply chain, digital economic development and regional cooperation for sustainable development.

Later on, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, will meet with representatives from Nvidia and YTL Power. After lunch, he will be meeting with the US APEC Business Coalition, followed by a one-on-one meeting with Namhae Chemical Corp and JS Link, separately.

Namhae Chemical is a Korean-based company which produces and sells agricultural chemicals, while JS Link is a genome-based biotechnology company that focuses on the research and development of genome analysis services in South Korea and internationally.

Anwar will then attend the APEC Economic Leaders' dinner before wrapping up the day with an exit press conference.

Malaysia are among the 12 founding members of APEC. The others include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

APEC comprises 21 economies and is home to close to three billion people, contributing 62 per cent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 48 per cent of world trade in 2021.

-- BERNAMA