53rd Merdeka Independence Day Reception @ Dubai

31/8/2010

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke-53 buat Malaysia!

Reported by KhaleejTimes

DUBAI — More than 3,000 Malaysian expatriates in Dubai and the Northern Emirates will converge at the Shangrila Hotel on Shaikh Zayed road tonight to celebrate their 53rd National Day, with a get-together Iftar.

The celebration will continue until Friday, September 3, in another get-together Iftar to mark the farewell party for their outgoing Consul General Syed Md Hasrin, who will be promoted as the deputy chief of mission at Jakarta, Indonesia. Hasrin’s wife will also assume a diplomatic post at the ASEAN mission there.

Consul General Hasrin told Khaleej Times that the joint Iftar on September 3 will also feature a Food Bazaar where Malaysian families can purchase their favourite Malay food. “Families will bring their home-made food — mostly their favourite Malaysian cuisine. “Some seven families are participating in the Food Bazaar, which resembles what we have in Malaysia — where we go to buy prepared Iftar packs.”

While the Malaysian Business Council organised the National Day celebration, the Malaysian UAE Association, together with the Consulate General, set up the Food Bazaar for the weekly get-together. As Malaysians celebrate their National Day, Hasrin said the day would bring to mind the close interaction between Rulers and leaders of both the UAE and Malaysia. The UAE is the biggest trading partner of Malaysia now.

“Saudi Arabia was our biggest trading partner for so many years before. But for the past three years, the UAE has taken over the lead,” he said.

The Consul General also said that the growing relationship between the UAE and Malaysia was also reflected in the increasing number of Middle East tourists bound for Malaysia nowadays.
“There were 25,000 tourists from the Middle East in 2008. This figure dropped a bit in 2009 at the height of the global economic downturn, but it started to pick up and there was a five percent increase in tourist arrivals last year