Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu’adzam’s State-level visit to Vietnam from September 5-8 is expected to boost bilateral cooperation, especially in such key sectors as economics, trade and labour, towards the building of a strategic partnership.

The visit, which will be made at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang, also demonstrates Malaysia’s appreciation of the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Vietnam and marks the 40 th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Vietnam and Malaysia established diplomatic ties on March 30, 1973 .

The two sides have maintained exchanges of high-ranking visits and contacts. Most recently, President Truong Tan Sang paid a State-level visit to Malaysia in November, 2011 and Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan attended the Global Summit of Women in June this year.

Malaysia is Vietnam ’s ninth largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching nearly 7.9 billion USD in 2012 and 3.6 billion USD in the first five months of 2013.

Malaysia has invested in 448 projects worth 10.2 billion USD in Vietnam , ranking eighth out of countries and territories investing in the latter. Meanwhile, Vietnam is operating nine projects capitalised at 813 million USD in Malaysia .

The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in education during Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s official visit to Malaysia in April, 2004.

Accordingly, Malaysia offers annual graduate and post-graduate scholarships to Vietnamese students, including those sourced by government and economic groups.

The Malaysian government officially received Vietnamese workers from 2002 and the two governments have signed a labour cooperation agreement. At present, there are about 80,000 Vietnamese workers in Malaysia .

Over the past time, the two countries have signed several cooperation agreements including one on visa exemption for ordinary passport holders in September, 2001, which resulted in a surge in the number of Malaysian visitors to Vietnam , from 106,000 in 2006 to 211,000 in 2011. They adopted the Vietnam-Malaysia Joint Statement on Comprehensive Cooperation Framework in the 21 st Century in 2004. Vietnam ’s Government General Inspectorate and Malaysia ’s Anti-Corruption Commission reached a deal on anti-corruption in 2010.

The two sides also signed several MOUs on cooperation in the fields of education, defence, banking and information and communications technology.

Vietnam and Malaysia have benefited from long-lasting cooperation at regional and international forums, especially within the framework of ASEAN and the UN.-VNA