Malaysia ready to collaborate with South Korea on more substantial matters

Thursday 05 Dec 2024

SEOUL (Nov 26): Malaysia is looking forward to further collaborating with South Korea in more substantive learning curve discussions, including digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), that can benefit both countries, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said Malaysia had established strong ties with South Korea for more than six decades now without any issues or controversy.

“I think we look forward to further collaboration. I believe the President [Yoon Suk Yeol] would certainly support not only in terms of the MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) but also in terms of more substantive learning curve discussions, including on digitalisation and AI [artificial intelligence] to be able to benefit from one another.

“And I think in certain fields of academic achievement, certainly we can benefit more from Korea,” he said in his special address titled “Strategic Partners in a Complex World: Malaysia, Korea, and the Future of Asia” at Seoul National University on Tuesday.

Anwar is on a three-day official visit to South Korea to further strengthen bilateral relations between Malaysia and South Korea as both countries will be celebrating the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025.

Elaborating, Anwar said he was extremely touched by President Yoon’s remarks on Monday on the relationship between the two countries in the past.

“He [President Yoon] said that in the initial period of reconstruction of Korea after decades of upheaval, difficulties of battles and civil war, it was the small Malaya which decided to support in a small way for a newly independent nation, to support Korea by helping to build a small bridge [in Paju province] which is now known as the Malaysia Bridge.

“It touched me in the sense that there is this great economy and successful industrial technological development achieved in this country now and it has a president with the humility to acknowledge us... Malaya, Malaysia, the true friend of Korea, and that is why I think we look forward to further collaboration,” he said.

Meanwhile, Anwar also praised Seoul National University’s efforts in the innovation of new disciplines such as Future Studies, Social Science and Asian Studies, saying that it was also remarkable for the university to set up a special Institute for Future Studies.

“Incidentally, I was also proposing to one of our universities, the [International] Islamic University [of Malaysia], to set up the Institute of Future Studies. So, they will be able to collaborate.

“This displays the spectacular success and level of expertise and formidable task that you have in not only retaining that academic excellence but continuing to rethink the future of education and introducing new disciplines that were never considered in the past and I am certainly looking forward to further collaboration in this field,” he added.

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