A Malaysian academic exhibition will be held in two major Myanmar cities of Yangon and Mandalay late this month, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.

Jointly sponsored by Malaysia-based Winning Magnitude Sdn Bhd and Jenko Shwe Myin Educare Service of Myanmar, the exhibition will be held in Yangon on May 17-18 and in Mandalay on May 20, the report said.

International education and significant strength of private- owned universities, colleges and international schools in Malaysia will be displayed at the event and information and facts will be available about 10 schools in Malaysia including University of Malaysia, University of Nottingham (Malaysia Campus) and Swinburne University (Sarawak Campus), the report added.

Meanwhile, a 23-member Malaysian business delegation, led by Tan Sri Dato Soong Siew Hoong of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, is currently on a visit to Yangon. The delegation had talks with members of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry on promoting trade between the two countries, bilateral cooperation and investment, the paper said in another report Sunday.

Myanmar and Malaysia agreed in February 2004 to set up a joint commission for bilateral cooperation to promote the two countries' bilateral cooperation including economic and trade cooperation.

According to official statistics, Malaysia stands as Myanmar's fourth largest foreign investor after Thailand, Singapore and United Kingdom with 660.75 million U.S. dollars contracted investment having been injected into Myanmar so far since late 1988, mostly in the sectors of oil and gas, hotel and engineering services.

Figures also indicate that bilateral trade between Myanmar and Malaysia amounted to 233.3 million dollars in the fiscal year 2005- 06 with Myanmar's import from Malaysia standing at 140 million dollars and its export to Malaysia taking 93.3 million dollars.

The bilateral trade volume for the first half (April-September) of 2006-07 was 90.01 million dollars with Myanmar's import from Malaysia at 52.6 million dollars and its export to Malaysia 37.41 million dollars.

Source: Xinhua