Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) board of governors chairman Awang Sariyan said this was because BM, which has about 300 million speakers, was also used in Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Timor Leste.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s proposal is a continuation of efforts that started decades ago and Indonesia has been a friend in championing the struggle for almost 50 years.

“The effort to unite the Asean regional countries through language means a lot,” he said in a statement here today.

Yesterday, Ismail was reported as saying that he would continue to make efforts to uplift the status of BM, which may become an Asean language one day.

The prime minister also said that the two countries had agreed to use BM as a language of communication at every international conference.

In the meantime, Awang Sariyan said efforts to make BM the official language of Asean required strong support from all Malay-speaking countries.