KUALA LUMPUR - The leaders of Malaysia and Thailand said on Thursday that they had resolved an issue that had disrupted trade in seafood, and that they would work on developing a special border economic zone.
In May, Thailand restricted the import of Malaysian-caught sea bass due to concerns over chemical residues, prompting Kuala Lumpur to temporarily ban some varieties of Thai shrimp over food safety controls last month.
“We have resolved this outstanding issue of fisheries … we agree it should be effected in one week,” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told reporters following a meeting with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya.
Mr Anutin is on a two-day visit to Malaysia that is aimed at strengthening economic cooperation and smoothing over longstanding border issues between the neighbours.
The leaders agreed to proceed with developing a special border economic zone, and to facilitate customs and immigration exchanges, Mr Anwar said. They also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation.
On Friday, the two leaders will travel to the northern Malaysian state of Kedah to jointly open a new border crossing linked to the Thai customs and immigration checkpoint in Sadao, in Songkhla province.
Their visit comes amid renewed security concerns following a recent spike in violence tied to the decades-old separatist insurgency in Thailand’s predominantly Malay-Muslim southern border provinces.
“Ending the violence and addressing the challenges in Thailand’s southern border provinces remains a top priority for my government,” Mr Anutin said at the media briefing.
Other agreements reached during the talks included reopening ferry services between Satun and Kuala Perlis and integrating ticketing for the Bangkok–Hat Yai–Butterworth rail route.
The two governments also set a target of raising bilateral trade to $30 billion in the near future, from around $25 billion last year.
