KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore would be deliberating on measures to further advance relations and cooperation, including new initiatives relating to smooth connectivity, cross-border movements as well as collaboration on green energy.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its statement said, the meeting of the two leaders would be taking place during Anwar’s working visit to Singapore on 29-30 October 2023 in conjunction with the 10th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat.
According to the statement, both Leaders will also witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of entrepreneurship and a side letter to improve provisions of the Third Malaysia-Singapore Business Development Fund (MSBDF). A Leaders’ Joint Statement will be issued after the Retreat.
“The Prime Minister is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the President of the Republic of Singapore at Istana Singapura.
“The Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat is the highest level of bilateral mechanism between the two countries, hosted alternately since 2007,” the statement said.
The statement highlighted that the Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat is the highest level of bilateral mechanism between the two countries, hosted alternately since 2007. The Leaders’ Retreat has been postponed since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This will be the first meeting between Prime Minister Anwar and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the framework of the Retreat,” the statement reiterated.
Meanwhile Malaysia and Singapore share deep-rooted and multi-faceted ties. In the economic aspect, Malaysia and Singapore are each other’s second-largest trading partners, with a total trade value of RM368.19 billion in 2022, reflecting a 37.6 percent increase as compared to the trade value in 2021.
The Prime Minister is accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Datuk Seri Diraja Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir as well as several other Cabinet Ministers and senior government officials. –Malaysia World News
