Hanoi (VNA) - Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s official visitto Vietnam from July 20-21 is expected to contribute to consolidating politicaltrust, promoting multifaceted cooperation, and developing the two countries’relations in a more substantive and effective manner.

This is the Malaysian leader’s first official visit to Vietnamsince he took office last December. The trip will be made at the invitation ofhis Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh, according to an announcement of theVietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam and Malaysia set up their diplomatic ties on March30, 1973, and upgraded their relations to the Strategic Partnership level in August2015.

The two sides have regularly organised high-level meetingsand contacts and delegation exchanges, and maintained cooperation mechanisms.

The two countries also approved the Action Programme on theimplementation of the Strategic Partnership for the 2021-2025 period with majororientations in order to effectively tap potential and strengths of each country,towards mutual recovery and resilient and sustainable development in thepost-COVID period.

Malaysia is currently Vietnam's second largest trade partnerin ASEAN, after Thailand, and ninth in the world, and is Vietnam's third biggestexport market in ASEAN. Meanwhile, Vietnam is Malaysia's third largest tradepartner in the association. Two-way trade reached 14.68 billion USD in 2022, up17.4% year-on-year. The two countries are striving to raise the figure to 18billion USD by 2025.

Malaysia ranks second in ASEAN and 10th out of140 countries and territories pouring capital into Vietnam, with 702 validprojects totaling 13 billion USD in 32 out of the 63 provinces and cities.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has 21 valid projects totaling 853million USD in Malaysia, ranking ninth out of 78 countries and territoriesinvesting in the country.

At present, around 12,000 Vietnamese people are working inMalaysia, accounting for nearly 1% of the number of foreign workers in thenation.

Over the past years, Vietnam and Malaysia have also promotedcollaboration in education, culture-tourism, science and technology andpeople-to-people exchange.

Currently, there are about 1,000 Vietnamese studentsstudying in Malaysia. The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding oncooperation in education on March 6, 2019 to replace the one inked in 2004, andanother on cooperation in the field of higher education on October 17, 2023.

Malaysia is among 10 markets seeing the largest numbers ofVietnamese tourists. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the total visitor exchange between the two countries in 2019 reached about 1 million. In 2022,Vietnam welcomed more than 170,000 Malaysian tourists, and Malaysia also servedabout 170,000 Vietnamese travellers.

In Vietnam's relationship with Malaysia, people-to-peoplediplomacy plays a particularly important role and is becoming more and moreimportant.

The Vietnam-Malaysia Friendship Association was establishedon June 5, 1994. The association has maintained regular exchangeswith the Malaysian Embassy in Hanoi and the Vietnamese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.On March 8, 2022, the Malaysian government granted a license to establish the Malaysia- Vietnam Friendship Association.

Currently, there are around 30,000 Vietnamese people livingin Malaysia./.