Tuesday October 26, 2004 - KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia-Pakistan JointMinisterial Commission meets today after a lapse of four years andofficials from both sides have prepared extensively to make up for losttime.

The commission, headed by the foreign ministers, last convened inIslamabad in 2000.

Kasuri: 'This meeting should be dominated by economic issues'It covers and reviews a wide range of bilateral and international topics,but the Pakistani side wants economic and trade issues to dominate thistime.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri said that with his country’seconomy expected to grow by 7% this year, Pakistan wanted a helping handfrom Malaysia to steady and maintain its economic growth.

There is much to discuss, with the many changes on the internationalscene, but this meeting should be dominated by economic issues.

We want to attract more Malaysian investments and increase exports to yourcountry to address the huge trade imbalance. We are also interested injoint venture projects and the setting up of an palm oil refinery inPakistan, he said in an interview yesterday.

Issues concerning higher education, joint ventures, commodities,infrastructure development, agriculture, telecommunications, informationtechnology and tourism have been included on the agenda.

Minister of State for Tourism Sumera Malik is among those in the Pakistanidelegation. The senior officers-level meeting was held yesterday.