Kl,Doha in RM6b venture

Putrajaya, Malaysia—Malaysia and Qatar have agreed to set up an investment fund with a total amount of 2 billion U.S. dollars, in a bid to boost bilateral cooperation and investment, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday. Najib announced the agreement at a joint press conference after meeting with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir al-Thani, who is on a three-day visit to Malaysia.

“We both agreed that each country would set aside 1 billion U.S. dollars to begin with looking for investment opportunities in Malaysia, Qatar and also within the whole region,” Najib told reporters, saying both countries would work out the details of the fund.

In 2010, Malaysia’s total trade with Qatar was 1.3 billion ringgit (403.4 million U.S. dollars), down from 3.07 billion ringgit (871.7 million U.S. dollars) a year earlier. For the January-September period this year, total trade between the two countries amounted to 3.3 billion ringgit (1.09 billion U.S. dollars).

Najib said both countries were confident that the total trade volume and the range of products sold between the two countries would be further increased. He added that the Qatari prime minister responded positively to a request made by Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned oil giant, to buy natural gas from Qatar.