Philippines, Malaysia to boost ties in agriculture, digital economy  

KUALA LUMPUR – The Philippines and Malaysia agreed yesterday to convene joint meetings in October to increase collaboration in various areas of mutual interest, including transnational crime, agriculture and digital economy. 

At a joint press briefing with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, President Marcos said the meetings would help accelerate discussions on priority areas of cooperation between the two nations.

“We agreed to convene the next Philippines-Malaysia Joint Commission Meeting in the near future. I believed the date that we decided upon was around sometime in October,” Marcos said.

“We do this so that our government agencies will have an avenue to discuss priority cooperation in detail, most especially in the areas of transnational crimes, agriculture, halal industry, Islamic banking, education, tourism and culture, sports and the digital economy,” he said.Marcos said the Malaysian government offered to build capacity in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, especially in priority sectors such as halal, Islamic banking and food security. “We continue to work on the corresponding MOUs in these fields and have them signed – we’ll have them signed in the near future,” the Chief Executive said. The Malaysian government, Marcos said, has offered their expertise to train Filipino personnel and officials to strengthen the country’s capabilities in these “increasingly important sectors.” He said Malaysia is one of the leading halal economies in the world. For his part, Anwar said they have agreed to convene the joint commission to boost diplomatic ties between the two countries.  “Finally, I think the issues that we relate upon is the issue of the joint commission that’s going to meet towards the end of the year. And we have outstanding MOUs, which both of us agreed to accelerate the process and where we should find ways to resolve and then hopefully sign prior to the — or during the commission meeting,” the Prime Minister said.  The last JCM was held in Manila in 2011. According to the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 8th JCM was supposedly scheduled in 2013, which was supposed to be hosted by Malaysia. Malaysia was the 10th largest trading partner of the Philippines last year, with trade totaling $8.84 billion. Malaysia also ranked as the country’s 11th export destination and 9th import source valued at $2.46 billion and $6.38 billion, respectively, in 2022. In terms of investments, Malaysia ranked 22nd among the Philippines’ top investment partners in 2022 and the fourth source of foreign direct investment with $105.7 million, up by 56.4 percent from January to September 2022.