The Malaysian government hopes to woo 100,000 foreign students to study in local institutions of higher learning by 2010, a senior education official said.

Malaysia has the potential to become the choice country for foreign students to pursue tertiary education abroad, Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency on Sunday.

He said the social stability and reasonable cost of living were among those factors which helped draw foreign students to come to this country.

The government will intensify promotion efforts to attract more students from neighboring southeast Asian nations, China and west Asia, Mustapa told reporters Saturday night in the Malacca state.

Currently, there are 40,000 foreign students in Malaysia, said the higher education minister, adding that the number is rather small compared with the facilities available.

Source: Xinhua