Selangor Journal
Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia B.N. Reddy during his visit to the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) to mark India’s 65 years of bilateral relations with Malaysia. — Picture by BERNAMA.

India, Malaysia can explore new areas of cooperation — Envoy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Malaysia-India bilateral ties have grown steadily for more than six decades as both sides now seek new areas of cooperation, including in the field of renewable energy, healthcare, religious tourism, and media exchange.

Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia B.N. Reddy said the governments of both countries have shown strong commitment and made progress in achieving sustainable development, moving towards a greener and cleaner environment by pushing ahead with renewable energy.

“Malaysia has a clear journey in targeting to achieve its Net Zero ambition by 2050, where else India has also unveiled its plan for renewable energy ambitions with big solar push,” he said after visiting the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) at Wisma Bernama here today.

Reddy believes India and Malaysia have huge potential in the solar power industry as both countries, being close to the Equator, have a maximum number of sunny days with high intensity of sunlight.

Commenting on the collaboration in healthcare, Reddy said both countries can work together in the area of research and development (R&D) of the Covid-19 vaccine, with India willing to share its expertise and knowledge in developing its own vaccine called Covaxin.

Covaxin is developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech and approved by World Health Organisation (WHO).

On tourism, he said India has a huge potential in Buddhist and Islamic tourism for Malaysian tourists who make up a considerable number from these two faiths,” he said, adding that during the pre-Covid-19 days, some 700,000 Indian nationals visited Malaysia annually, the top 10 inbound tourists to Malaysia and is among the top five spenders in the country.

On media exchange programme, Reddy suggested that Bernama, being the official news agency, could establish broader cooperation in the media sector through collaboration with its counterparts in India like Press Trust of India (PTI) for wire services, and Prasar Bharati for television services, and All-India Radio for radio services.

He also extended an invite for Bernama journalists to undergo media training at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi, India with the institute being adjudged as the best media education institute in India.

The diplomat said 2022 will be a significant year as both India-Malaysia celebrate their 65th anniversary of bilateral ties, besides the republic marking the 30th anniversary of its relations with Asean.

He said India and Malaysia were now having more engagements at the leadership level in a virtual mode in the wake of Covid-19, adding that some high-level visits from India to Malaysia could be expected after the Aidilfitri celebration in May this year.

Reddy also commended the Malaysian government as the Health Ministry has successfully inoculated almost 100 per cent of the adult population against Covid-19, besides introducing various measures to contain the Omicron variant.

India established diplomatic relations with the Federation of Malaya (predecessor state of Malaysia) in 1957 immediately on Malaysia’s independence. The two countries enjoyed a strong relationship in the 1960s as a result of the personal friendship between Prime Ministers Nehru and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.

Earlier, Reddy was briefed on Bernama operations for an hour by its senior management staff led by Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mokhtar Hussain and Editor-in-Chief Khairdzir Md Yunus.

— Bernama

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