The Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday. 

The National Day was marked with a ceremony at the Malaysian High Commission in Windhoek.

Malaysia's flag as an independent and sovereign republic was raised for the first time 66 years ago, on August 31st, 1957. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength, growing to become what was referred to as an Asian tiger.  

Celebrating the 66th Malaysian Day at the High Commission in Windhoek, Acting High Commissioner, Dr Mohamad Rameez Yahaya, underscored the importance of unity in a nation of 37 million people to ensure stability, peace, and security.

Bilateral relations between Namibia and Malaysia were formally established with the opening of the High Commission in Windhoek on March 21, 1996.

Relations were further strengthened by close political ties in the context of south-south cooperation.

"Since the establishment of our diplomatic relations, they have steadily increased... Economic cooperation and integration have been among the major areas of existing cooperation between Malaysia and Namibia. Malaysia is delighted that in 2019, a Malaysian university, Limkokwing, was established in Namibia," said Dr. Yahaya.

The southeast Asian country established the Malaysia Technical Cooperation Programme, or MTCP, in 1980, and Namibia benefited from this initiative, which facilitates the provision of training.

"Malaysia, through MTCP, offers more than 60 technical and capacity-building courses annually, and to date, we are happy to announce that there are a total of 160 participants from Namibia and 37 000 participants from all over the world attending this programme in Malaysia. Under the MtCP scholarship programme, five students from Namibia were selected as scholarship recipients to pursue post-graduate or master's studies in Malaysia from 2003 to 2006, and we hope this can be utilised again."