BARELY a day after his second State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. left for Malaysia for a three-day state visit.

Marcos said that his visit is upon the “gracious” invitation of Malaysian King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

In his pre-departure speech, the chief executive said that he aims to “harness” the potential of a revitalized relationship between the two countries.

“Building on past successes, visit to Malaysia aims to identify new areas of synergy that can propel our partnership and served as a roadmap for our respective agencies to work on for the mutual benefit of both our countries and peoples of the new century,” Marcos said at the Maharlika Hall of Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

The state visit will be from July 25 to 27. President Marcos is expected to have an audience with the king of Malaysia.

They are expected to tackle deepening their partnership “through new areas of mutual interest.”

A bilateral meeting is also expected with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim “to pursue areas of cooperation and our agreed priority areas that are aligned with our countries’ respective economic agendas.”

“In order to assist our nation’s trajectory of economic growth and to meet our economic target of 6.4 percent year-on-year GDP growth this year, my visit will focus on the renewed partnership in the fields of agriculture, food and security, digital economy, tourism, people to people as well as explore new avenues for cooperation, particularly in areas of the halal industry and Islamic banking,” Marcos said.

Marcos boasted the “halal” industry, which he said is expected to grow into a trillion-dollar industry in the international market.

“Malaysia is one of the global leaders in this sector and this visit aims to forge synergy with Malaysia for the Philippines to enjoy a share of this market,” he added.

Marcos will also meet with Malaysian business leaders in order to show the potentials of doing business in the Philippines.

“I hope that through the investment forum, round table discussions and business meetings organized by the Department of Trade and Industry, we will build new bridges between our economies and create inroads to new ventures that will see our bilateral volumes and investment increase,” he said.

He is also expected to meet with the Filipino community in Kuala Lumpur “to personally show the nation’s care and protection and reassure them that the government is continuously working to ensure their safety and wellbeing.”

The president will be accompanied by his wife, First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos, key Cabinet officials, the country’s economic team and a business delegation.

Malaysia was ranked the Philippines’ 10th trading partner and 22nd source of approved investments in 2022.