by S BIRRUNTHA / pic by BLOOMBERG
MALAYSIA received a special visit from Shinzo Abe (picture) cum special envoy of the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida.
The former Japanese Prime Minister’s three-day visit from March 10 to 12 is in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Malaysia’s Look East Policy (LEP) and the 65th anniversary of Malaysia-Japan relations.
During the special visit, His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah agreed to receive Shinzo Abe at Istana Negara today.
Abe is scheduled to receive the award of Honorary Doctorate in Political Economics in conjunction with the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM)’s 36th Convocation Ceremony on March 12, which will be graced by the presence of Al-Sultan Abdullah.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is also scheduled to receive a courtesy call from Abe and will host the latter for a dinner on March 11.
Apart from discussing post-Covid-19 new cooperation initiatives between Malaysia and Japan, Abe is also expected to deliver a special message from Kishida to Ismail Sabri.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Abe’s special visit reflects the closeness and close cooperation in various fields between Malaysia and Japan.
“The implementation of the LEP for four decades has yielded great benefits, especially in aspects of human capital development as well as trade and investment between the two countries,” it said in a statement today.
In 2021, Japan was Malaysia’s fourth largest trading partner with a bilateral trade value of RM149 billion (US$36 billion).
As of December 2021, Japan was the largest investor based on the number of projects implemented in the manufacturing sector with a total value of RM90.9 billion (US$27.6 billion).
RELATED ARTICLES





Scrapping Japan cherry blossom 'like taking hugs away from Italians': Tokyo gov
