President General Pervez Musharraf and Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi discussed ways to strengthen bilateral relations here on Thursday. The president received the Malaysian prime minister at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. Both the leaders also reviewed regional and international issues of mutual interest and exchanged views on the challenges being faced by the Muslim Ummah. Both the leaders expressed satisfaction over growing economic and commercial ties between Pakistan and Malaysia.

They underlined that immense potential existed for economic and trade partnerships, which should be fully tapped to redress trade imbalance and to enhance Malaysian investment in Pakistan. They said that consultations on Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) should lead to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between both the countries.

Both Musharraf and Badawi emphasised upon the need to establish joint investment ventures and to explore new areas for collaboration in industry, electronics, IT, telecommunications and agriculture.

President Musharraf said that the inauguration of the Malaysian company - Dancom - would give a fresh impetus to the ongoing efforts to strengthen Pak-Malaysian economic collaboration. The president said that the way forward was Enlightened Moderation.

He thanked Ahmad Badawi, in his capacity as OIC chairman, for holding consultations of the OIC Commission of Eminent Persons recently in Putrajaya to steer deliberations towards a meaningful follow up on the 10th Islamic Summit's resolution on Enlightened Moderation.

The president said that after its entry into the Asean regional forum, Pakistan was participating in its work and hoped to forge even closer ties with all the East Asian countries.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005