“We believe these initiatives would assist Bangladesh in developing its internal and domestic policies while strengthening the intra- and inter-regional cooperation and nurture collective self-reliance between Malaysia and Bangladesh,” he said.

The Malaysian envoy made the remarks while addressing a function in the city on Wednesday night arranged for Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) participants.

A total of 50 MTCP alumni were invited to attend the MTCP Alumni Dinner 2019.

Every year, participants of the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) meet for an MTCP Alumni programme organised by the High Commission of Malaysia in Bangladesh.

The objective of the programme is to ensure continuous engagements with various stakeholders from Bangladesh who attended previous MTCP editions.

Acting High Commissioner Abu Hasan said as they approach the new decade, the new areas of focus for MTCP training courses in 2020 will be on Industrial Revolution 4.0, artificial intelligence, robotics as well as economic and finance.

As such, he said, Malaysia welcomes more participation from Bangladesh for the MTCP in 2020 and hopes for greater cooperation between the two countries.

Acting High Commissioner Abu Hasan said Malaysia is and will continue to be friend of Bangladesh and its people.

“This is important for both our countries – for the generations to come – to better understand each other and to have long-lasting friendly and fruitful bilateral relations,” he said.

Around 787 officials from Bangladesh participated in the MTCP.

In 2019, a total of 12 officials from Bangladesh attended the MTCP courses in several areas of capacity development such as industrial and technical training, social development, professional service, diplomacy, economic, anti-corruption and environment.