(KPL) Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, spouse, and a delegation of high ranking officials of Malaysia paid a working visit to Laos in response to the invitation of his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone on Jun 26-27 to enhance the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Laos and Malaysia.

The bilateral meeting between the two Prime Ministers took place right after a welcome ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone in honour of his Malaysian counterpart at the Prime Minister’s Office in Vientiane on Tuesday’s morning, Jun 27.

Prime Minister Sonexay highly valued the visit by his Malaysian counterpart and his high-ranking delegation as a landmark in strengthening the longstanding friendship and cooperation and the regular exchange of high-level visits between the two countries.

At the meeting, both sides noted that the friendship and cooperation between the two countries have been strengthened and deepened over the past 57 years as reflected in mutual exchange of visits by high ranking officials of the two countries and mutual help and mutual support under bilateral and multilateral frameworks as well as in regional and international arenas.

Both sides highly valued their cooperation on economy, including trade and investment noting that the cooperation in this area has enjoyed a constant growth with bilateral trade in 2022 reached 241.7 million US dollars, rising by 68.65%.

The two leaders realized that the capability of the two countries in promoting cooperation on trade is high especially in areas of commercial production, trade links with third countries and regional markets.

Malaysia’s investment is represented in 46 projects with a total capital of 924 million US dollars, mainly in energy, wood processing, construction, finance and banking, hospitality, mining and agriculture making Malaysia the fifth largest foreign investor in the Lao PDR.

They also highly valued energy cooperation, especially renewable and clean energy which is the focus of the cooperation between Laos and Malaysia. The Lao side asked Malaysia to continue discussion on increasing electricity purchase from 300 mw to 500 mw in the future.

Malaysia’s government also supported human resource development in the Lao PDR through Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP). Since 1991 the Malaysian government has provided 1,690 scholarships to Laos, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development in the country.

Both sides agreed to promote regular exchange of high-ranking Party and government leaders, continue to implement cooperation projects the two countries have signed, and promote people to people exchange.

The two countries are preparing to reopen direct flights between Vientiane and Kuala Lumpur to facilitate the exchange of investors and tourists, thus promoting Visit Laos Year 2024, and deepen cooperation on various areas including electricity, finance and banking, national defense and public security, technology and communications, cyber security, agriculture, tourism, education, health, human resource development, labour, halal food, and university to university cooperation.

Both sides also agreed to further promote mutual assistance and support in regional and international arenas and informed each other about the socio-economic development in their respective countries and exchanged points of view on regional and international issues of common interest.

On this occasion, Prime Minister expressed thanks to the government and people of Malaysia for their assistance to the Lao PDR in the past years as well as the priceless assistance for Covid-19 response in the Lao PDR including the prompt provision of vaccines, medical supplies, and experts to the Lao PDR and expressed his hope that Malaysia will continue to provide assistance to Laos in the future, especially supporting Laos’ chair of ASEAN in 2024.

The Malaysian side agreed to urge relevant authorities to work with the Lao side to best implement activities to bring optimal benefits to peoples of the two countries.

The two premiers also witnessed the signing of two documents - a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on railway, and an MoU between Thanaleng Dry Port and Mutiara Perlis Sdn Bhd (MPSB) and the exchange of documents including a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation and a letter of intent for cooperation on a joint study into energy possibility in the Lao PDR between Electricite du Laos and TNB Power Generation.

KPL