Following the Conservative Party’s win in the recent UK general election, the British government says it hopes to increase bilateral trade with Malaysia.

In a statement today, UK High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay said his government will also continue to back Malaysia’s reform initiatives.

“The longstanding UK and Malaysia relationship is a strong foundation for us to build on. Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased 10 percent to £5 billion (approximately RM27.36 billion) and we look forward to growing this even further.

“The UK will continue to support Malaysia in its reform agenda through the sharing of British expertise and experience.

“On the defence front, we remain committed to the Five Powers Defence Arrangement (FPDA) which the UK and Malaysia are part of,” he said.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng previously said that UK’s cumulative investments into Malaysia in 2018 was RM22.3 billion.

Established in 1971, the FPDA is a security institution between Malaysia, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Hay added that like Malaysia, the UK wanted to tackle the issue of plastic waste.

“With both the UK and Malaysia sharing a common goal in tackling climate change and plastic waste, we have a unique opportunity to work together to address these global problems ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) which the UK will co-host with Italy in 2020,” he said.

There are presently 19,000 Malaysians studying in the UK. Some 80,000 others were studying for a UK qualification locally, the high commissioner said.

Hay estimated that 18,500 British nationals presently reside in Malaysia while about 360,000 British tourists visited the country last year.