LIMA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim held a brief meeting before the last day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2024 with his counterpart from New Zealand, Christopher Luxon.
"We are in agreement to boost our countries' relationship through cooperation in various sectors, especially increasing trade and investment by 50 percent by 2030.
"We also discussed cooperation in education in the fields of information technology, engineering, agriculture, and the halal industry," the prime minister said on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders Week (AELW) here.
New Zealand is Malaysia's second-largest trading partner in the Australasia region, reaching a trade value of US$2.54 billion in 2023.
Both nations aim to increase bilateral trade by 50 percent by 2030, especially in the high-value manufacturing and digital economy sectors.
APEC is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region, representing nearly 40 percent of the world's population, almost half of global trade, and over 60 percent of the global economy.
Malaysia is among the 12 founding members of APEC. The others are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United States, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.-- BERNAMA