Malaysia’s Ambassador to Croatia, Kennedy Mayong Onon, sees potential for cooperation between the two countries in several sectors such as trade and investment as well as tourism.

For Sabah, he sees much potential in the tourism sector as the state has much to offer Europeans who love the nature which the state is blessed with.

“I see the potential in tourism. If we can bring in 100 to 200 visitors from Croatia to Sabah, it is a good start. We need to start somewhere and Europeans love the nature which Sabah has,” he said.

“This is the reason why I paid a courtesy call on Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin together with Sabah Tourism Board’s CEO Noredah Othman,” he said.

Kennedy who was met during his trip home to Sabah recently, said during the courtesy call, they discussed cooperation especially on how to attract tourists from Croatia to Sabah.

“We discussed the possibility of the state government sending one or two dance experts to our embassy in Europe so they can teach the staff there some traditional dances from Sabah like the Sumazau.

“Usually at the embassies in Europe, the embassy staff either Malaysians or locals, are very interested to learn the dances, they can be our mini ambassadors when we organise promotions like cultural promotions,” he said.Jafry, Kennedy said, offered some traditional costumes of ethnic groups in Sabah for him to bring and display in the Malaysian embassy in Croatia.

Kennedy added that he and the embassy staff will also wear traditional Malaysian attire during celebrations like National Day and Malaysia Day where they invite their Croatian friends and diplomats from other countries to join in the celebration.