NEW YORK, Sept 22 ― Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said he has been invited to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia in October.

Anwar said he will be in UAE from October 5 to 6 for a working visit before attending the inaugural Asean-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on October 16.

"UAE and Saudi have much stronger collaboration with us. We hope they will invest more,” said Anwar who is here to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

During a question and answer session after delivering his keynote address "Regaining Malaysia’s Lead in Asia” at the Invest Malaysia New York event today, Anwar said there was growing interest from GCC members in Asean.

"We (Asean) have growing interest from Saudi, UAE and Qatar,” he said.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir after a meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of UNGA, said from January to April 2023, total trade between the two countries rose by 5.7 per cent, from RM11.25 billion to RM11.89 billion.

During a visit to Kuala Lumpur in May, UAE Trade Minister Thani Al Zeyoudi said that Malaysian investments in the UAE stood at US$150 million (RM703.6 million), and UAE investments in Malaysia had reached US$220 million.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is Malaysia’s largest trading partner among the West Asian countries, with US$10.26 billion in total bilateral trade recorded between the two countries in 2022, an increase of 159.2 per cent from 2021.

Among the prominent projects the Kingdom has in Malaysia is the Pengerang Integrated Complex in Johor, through Saudi Aramco. ― Bernama