Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, city skyline at night

HRH The Duke of York visits Malaysia – May 2010

During his visit to Malaysia in May 2010, HRH The Duke of York held several high level meetings, including with the Agong (King), Prime Minister, Trade Minister and Foreign Minister. 

At these meetings HRH stressed the importance of the Malaysian market to UK business and encouraged further liberalisation of the services sector in particular. 

Prime Minister Najib and Trade Minister Mustapa both said that they would welcome more UK investment into Malaysia, particularly in the services and higher value added sectors which Malaysia is seeking to boost under the recently launched New Economic Model.  Expanding on this theme in a speech to the UK-Malaysia Partnership Dialogue HRH said “We hope as the NEM is unveiled in greater detail, more British companies, particularly in the services sector, can be persuaded that Malaysia has a lot to offer and also a market they should consider seriously”.

The Duke of York visited Nottingham University's Malaysia campus to help celebrate Nottingham's 10th Anniversary in Malaysia.  Educational links are very important to the wider bilateral relationship with Malaysia and 12,000 Malaysian students are studying in the UK each year. 

HRH also visited Spirit Aerosystems Malaysia which is a major supplier of airframes to Airbus.  And he visited Air Asia's academy and HQ and met with CEO, Tony Fernandes.  Air Asia are one of the world's largest customers for Airbus and Tony Fernandes is also team owner of the new Lotus F1 team based in the UK.

The Duke of York's visit coincided with the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum and HRH made a major speech to over 1,000 business delegates profiling the importance of the UK's trade with the Islamic World and the growth of Islamic Finance.  

On the theme of Islamic Finance, HRH also opened a new branch of HSBC Amanah, HSBC's Islamic Finance wing.  HSBC's Global CEO of Islamic Finance, Mukhtar Hussain, said "The presence of Prince Andrew at this ceremony, confirms that Islamic banking is clearly an important market in the global banking industry".