A pair of giant pandas from China expected to arrive in Malaysia on April 16 will be postponed to a new date which will be announced later.

This was the agreement made between Malaysia and China through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur .

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel in a statement said, the two sides had agreed that the pandas would be brought on a more significant date to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China in May.

The pandas, Feng Yi and Fu Wa were due to leave Sichuan Conservation Centre on April 15 and arrive in Kuala Lumpur the following day.

However, China was reported to have postponed the transfer of the two in respect to the global search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing since March 8.

The pandas which will be on a 10-year loan, was done at the request of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during a meeting with his counterpart, Wen Jiabao, during his visit to Nanning in April.

It was materialized with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU ) between the government of Malaysia and the China Wildlife Conservation Association ( CWCA ) in June 2012.

Panda

Meanwhile, Astro AWANI found that complex to house the two pandas at the National Zoo is almost complete.

Feng Yi and Fu Wa are expected to be placed in a special exhibit area with temperatures below 24 degrees Celsius and will be the main focus for visitors at the National Zoo.

The complex area of 1.6 hectares is estimated to cost about RM25 million.