KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia, like other ASEAN countries, will continue to strengthen its neutral stance so that more investment and trade will flow to the ten member countries of the bloc, said Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz.

In fact, he said Malaysia's growing prestige as a leading economy in ASEAN and Asia, and the country's leadership being recognised by the trade bloc, put the country in a good position to strengthen ASEAN's position in the eyes of the world.

Tengku Zafrul, who is attending the ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting in Laos now, also took the opportunity to share on Malaysia's preparations to assume the 2025 Asean chairmanship with Asean Secretary-General Dr Kao Kim Hourn.

"I am confident that Malaysia's chairmanship will highlight the country's leadership and vision in us driving the direction of the ASEAN economic agenda," he said on social media platform X today.

Outside of the meeting, Tengku Zafrul also met with the UK trade policy minister Douglas Alexander in a bilateral meeting. The two leaders discussed various ways to increase economic cooperation between Malaysia and the UK ahead of Malaysia's ASEAN chairmanship next year, which will also be discussed through the Fourth ASEAN - UK Economic Ministers Consultation in the context of ASEAN.

"Malaysia supports efforts to strengthen the ASEAN-UK partnership, to drive sustainable economic growth and enhance regional integration.

"The United Kingdom is Malaysia's largest market for the service sector in Europe with the value of bilateral trade between the two countries reaching RM23.28 billion. Malaysia's total exports to the UK amounted to RM9.94 billion, accounting for 5.1 per cent of our country's service exports," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the Troika Open-ended Dialogue together with the Third Asean Economic Ministers' Meeting with Switzerland, welcomed the finalisation and acceptance of the ASEAN-European Free Trade Association Joint Declaration on Economic Cooperation (ASEAN-EFTA JDC). He added that the ASEAN-EFTA JDC has the potential to create closer cooperation between ASEAN and EFTA in various priority sectors such as investment, trade, and others.

The minister said Switzerland is ASEAN's 9th largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI), reaching US$5.2 billion last year while the value of bilateral trade between the bloc and Switzerland amounted to US$28.5 billion in 2023.

-- BERNAMA