Citing Bangladesh’s growing economic potential and geopolitical significance in the area, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry Liew Chin Tong has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to give the country’s membership serious consideration.
“I believe it is a great idea that ASEAN should seriously consider,” he said while meeting with a visiting delegation from the National Defence College (NDC) of Bangladesh led by Major General Md Moshfequr Rahman in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. “I read that in a keynote address to Nikkei’s annual Future of Asia conference in Tokyo, Chief Adviser of the Bangladeshi interim government Mr Muhammad Yunus has once again expressed his country’s interest in joining ASEAN,” he wrote in his official facebook, shared by Bangladesh embassy in Kua Lumpur today.
In the days ahead, the junior minister hoped to see stronger commercial relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia.
In addition to the fact that millions of Bangladeshis have worked in Malaysia, he claimed that Bangladesh is a country that is highly significant to the Malaysian economy due to its economic potential as the eighth most populous country in the world.
At the end of June, the deputy minister will travel to Bangladesh, he told the delegation.
