South Korea, Malaysia to pursue Free Trade Agreement

KUALA LUMPUR - Visiting South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have pledged to conclude negotiations toward a bilateral Free Trade Argeement by year-end. 

At a joint news conference, the leaders said they had also discussed boosting co-operation in development of future vehicles, information technology (IT), smart industries, medicine and the halal market. 

Moon said he looked forward to the success of Malaysia's Look East Policy and South Korea's New Southern Policy, which he described as "two initiatives that will bring peace and prosperity to the citizens of our global community".  

"Korea and Malaysia have very similar perspectives on a number of issues," Mahathir said. "We are developing our IT and engineering sectors and would like to learn from Korea's rapid economic development."

The two leaders also agreed to increase the number of visitors between their countries. There were 100,000 last year.  www.koreanet.kr (ATI)