11 February 2020
It’s been super busy today and yesterday and also likely to be the same for tomorrow. One of the side duties of being the chair of the International Relations and Trade Select Committee is to meet and greet diplomats and visiting international MPs. Since my committee represents Parliament, I am more or less on duty to support the Speaker for such meetings and to receive foreign dignatries.
Yesterday I had a 9 am meeting with the Hon. Julio Chavez, MP from Venezuala at the Venezualan Embassy in central KL. After that, I rushed back to Parliament to join the Speaker to meet with Muslim MPs from India and Maldives. Just before lunch, the same Venezualan contingent saw the Speaker in Parliament and met me again. After a day of meetings, I hosted the Deputy High Commissioner, Mr Loy Hui Chien of Singapore for dinner last night at my home.
This morning, I had a carbon pricing briefing by ISIS Malaysia at 9.40 am. This ended at 12.15 pm. I then visited the Danish Ambassador, HE Jesper Vahr for a long working lunch. Tonight, I will be going to the UK High Commission to meet UK Foreign Secretary the Right Hon. Dominic Raab. I caught up with him in London in January 2019. Lastly, I have a policy meeting from 9.30 pm to 11 pm tonight.
Tomorrow, two members of my committee (YB June and YB Praba) and I will be greeting ten African Ambassadors in KL. We will meet them in Parliament at 10 am, to touch base with them and explain our committee work. Our discussion will centre on fostering greater diplomatic and trade ties. The African continent presents a vast untapped area of trade with great opportunities for Malaysian firms to export goods and also to invest in. Extending our reach and goodwill also helps tremendously in building soft power of Malaysia.
In the meantime, while I was engaged in multiple meetings, my officers have started identifying community projects for 2020 in the Subang constituency. Ivan, my officer will put up a separate posting on the work of our interns and officers.