MANAMA, Feb 20- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim held a meeting with Bahrain's Minister of Finance and Economy, Shaikh Salman Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa to discuss efforts to strengthen economic and financial cooperation between the two countries.

Among the matters given attention were the strengthening of cryptocurrency and the development of a sandbox platform as a step towards advancing the digital financial sector.

A sandbox platform refers to a remote and secure test environment to run applications, code or systems without the risk of affecting the real environment.

Also discussed were cooperation in the tourism industry, connectivity between Kuala Lumpur and Manama, as well as the manufacturing sector to boost joint economic activities.

Bahrain expressed its commitment to making the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit and the ASEAN-GCC+China Summit a success with the confirmation of the presence of the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain, Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Anwar is optimistic that the Malaysia-Bahrain collaboration in various agreed areas will directly benefit the economy and well-being of the people of both countries.

The Prime Minister also held a meeting with Sheikh Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Professor Dr Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad At-Tayyeb who is also the Chairman of the Muslim Hukama' Council in Manama, Bahrain.

The meeting aimed to reassess the level of cooperation that had been agreed upon during a visit to Cairo last November, with emphasis on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Arabic Language Institute at the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) in collaboration with Al-Azhar University.

In addition, also discussed were the offer of scholarships to Malaysian students to continue their studies at the institution, as well as the official establishment of the Muslim Hukama' Council in Malaysia.

In the meeting, issues related to Islamic affairs and the situation in Palestine were also on the main agenda.

On the same occasion, Anwar introduced Datuk Mohd Nakhaie Ahmad to Sheikh Al-Azhar Al-Sharif as Malaysia's new representative in the Muslim Hukama' Council.