Daily Times

High Commissioner of Malaysia to Pakistan, Mohammad Azhar Mazlan has said that Pakistan can benefit from Malaysia’s experiences in the tourism industry and to achieve technical support from Malaysia in this sector.

Malaysia has a prominent place in the world not only in traditional tourism, but also in religious tourism, Halal industry, agricultural and medical tourism, and Pakistan can get rich benefits from Malaysia’s experiences, Mohammad Azhar Mazlan said while talking to APP on Sunday.

The Malaysian envoy said that the potential of the global halal industry is $3 trillion and there are extensive cooperation and opportunities between Pakistan and Malaysia required in this sector. He said that Pakistan has to work on a medium and long-term comprehensive policy to promote the tourism industry, in which branding and marketing are important tools.

Azhar Mazlan said that development in Malaysia’s tourism sector is not a miracle, but the government of Malaysia had started working on the development of the tourism sector in 1980, allocated funds for marketing and branding and made a comprehensive plan for it. He said that there is a lot of potential in Pakistan in the halal industry and tourism sector, in this regard, Pakistan can get a lot of benefits in the international market.

He said that Malaysia and Pakistan can promote bilateral cooperation in the fields of tourism and halal industry through enhancing cooperation by the public-private sector. He said that there is a need for comprehensive planning for bringing investment in potential sectors, including tourism and halal industry in Pakistan.

The Malaysian high Commissioner said that the northern region of Pakistan is rich in natural beauty in which six major mountain peaks of the world are found and a major part of the Himalayan Mountain range also is in Pakistan which is a masterpiece of nature.

Replying to a question, he said that there are 200,000 Pakistani diaspora in Malaysia, who are working in various sectors of the Malaysian economy. He said that these people are important in the strengthening of the relationship between Malaysia and Pakistan, and they are also playing a major role in the development of Malaysia.

Azhar Mazlan said that Pakistan is a hardworking and intelligent nation and international rating agencies are indicating that Pakistan will join the 20 largest economies of the world by 2050. He said that Pakistan also has a young population and 240 million people of the total population of ASEAN are young people and Malaysia is willing to be the gateway of Pakistan to ASEAN countries.

In response to another question, he said that bilateral trade between Malaysia and Pakistan is far below its potential and more work is needed in this sector. He said that negotiations between Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce subsidiary, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and Malaysia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade are ongoing to increase the bilateral trade volume between the two countries, which is expected to increase mutual trade between the two countries.