Nursultan Nazarbayev meets Malaysian PM

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has met the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Tun Razak, Tengrinews reports citing the presidential website.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia visited Astana on an invitation of Nursultan Nazarbayev.

They discussed broadening of bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, investments, various industries, transport and culture. They also exchanged their views on the current issues of the international agenda.

Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed gratitude to the Malaysian Prime Minister for his visit and participation in the Astana Economic Forum.

“Our countries have similarly multinational and multireligious populations, and share common foreign policy and economic approaches. That is why we are interested in the development of bilateral cooperation and using Malaysian experience. (..) We have met three times over the past three years, which facilitates broadening of our bilateral ties. Our relations of friendship and mutual understanding suggest that your visit will be beneficial for bilateral cooperation between our two states,” the President said.

Najib Tun Razak, in turn, drew attention to the importance of strengthening cooperation both at the state level and within the framework of international organizations.

Three agreements totally worth $1.1 billion have been signed during the meeting. "They include construction of a methanol producing plant and a liquefied gas plant," the Malaysian Prime Minister said.

Besides, Malaysia is thinking about investing into Kazakhstan's oil and gas industry via its oil and gas company Petronas.

The Kazakhstan President pointed out that these agreements underscored the seriousness on the Malaysian companies' intent to invest in Kazakhstan. He also noted that the trade turnover amounting to $130 million between the two countries did not was far from being all the countries are capable of and called them to bring it to a higher level in the coming years.

During the meeting they also discussed increasing the number of flights between Kazakhstan and Malaysia and attracting a greater number of Kazakhstani students to study in Malaysian universities.

Nadjib Tun Razak expressed gratitude to Nursultan Nazarbayev for his invitation and for the support that Kazakhstan rendered in the search for the missing plane. He was talking about the Boeing 777-200 with 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers that went missing during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Kazakhstan and Malaysia have traditionally had friendly relations since establishment their diplomatic relations back in 1992. President Nazarbayev made his first official visit to Malaysia in 1996 to sign trade, economic and scientific cooperation agreements and pledge to facilitate mutual investments. in 2005 Malaysia supported Kazakhstan in its accession into the UNESCO executive council, and then it supported Kazakhstan's Astana city in its bid to host the EXPO-2017. 

Reporting by Assel Satayeva, writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina