SIALKOT   -  The High Commissioner of Malaysia to Pakistan Muhammad Azhar bin Mazlan said on Thursday that Malay­sia and Pakistan were brotherly Mus­lim countries who had been enjoying cordial ties. Addressing the business community at the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the current volume of bilateral trade be­tween both the countries was about 1.5 billion US dollar which was far below their actual potential. 

Malaysia was the largest exporter of the medical gloves and palm oil in the world and a leading member of Association of South East Asian Na­tion (ASEAN). He said that 10-mem­ber ASEAN had over 660 million population and was a huge market with opportunities for businessmen. The investors were greatly interested in investing in Pakistan in the fields of agriculture, mineral explanation, information technology and many others. Malaysia was currently im­porting beef and chicken meat from Brazil and India and was quite will­ing to buy these commodities from a brotherly Muslim country like Paki­stan. He added that Malaysia was presently buying many surgical items from Europe which could be directly bought from Sialkot, representatives from Malaysia-Pakistan Business Council would soon visit Sialkot to ex­plore ways of promoting the bilateral trade. He added that security issue was just a matter of perception and the ground reality was entirely differ­ent from the perception. He stressed upon the local businessmen to come forward and improve the narrative about Pakistan in the world.