By Syed Wahaj Ahmed
Consul General of Malaysia Herman Hardynata Bin Ahmad has said although trade volume between the two countries is largely in favor of Malaysia, Pakistan’s share in bilateral trade is also improving as Malaysia has increased its purchases of rice and frozen food from Pakistan.
“Malaysia’s exports to Pakistan mainly represent palm oil, but we are unable to completely fulfill Pakistan’s growing demand for palm oil despite the fact that we have been producing palm oil at our peak capacity. Malaysia is a small country and in terms of palm oil production, we are limited,” he said while speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
KCCI President Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh, Senior Vice President Altaf A Ghaffar, Vice President Tanveer Ahmed Barry, Chairman Diplomatic Missions and Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Farooq Afzal, Former President Majyd Aziz and KCCI’s managing committee members were also present on the occasion.
Malaysian CG also expressed his keenness to get engaged in maximum number of meetings being organized by the business community of Karachi which were focused on strengthening trade and investment ties between Malaysia and Pakistan.
“Last year a Malaysian delegation came to Pakistan in September to explore new avenues of trade cooperation and I will try to bring more such delegations to Karachi this year as well,” he said.
Appreciating the existing trade volume, especially the trade taking place from Karachi region, he said both countries have been cooperating with each other not only in trade but also in defence as Malaysia has been sending its defense officials for training in Pakistan and Pakistani officials from the armed forces were also being sent to Malaysia for training.
“In addition to enhanced trade, there are many other opportunities in the tourism sector and capacity building in many other sectors of the economy,” he said.
Lauding KCCI for regularly holding meetings and maintaining excellent liaison with Malaysian consulate, he said that these kinds of engagements with the business community of Karachi help in not only in highlighting concerns but also any other thing relating to trade with Malaysia.
While welcoming the Malaysian CG, KCCI President Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh stated that Pakistan and Malaysia have strong and diversified bilateral economic relationships in various areas of mutual interest.
“Despite strong brotherly ties, the bilateral trade’s volume between Pakistan and Malaysia remains below its true potential as Pakistani exports to Malaysia currently stand at around $300 million in FY23 which need to be enhanced to a reasonable level.”
Underscoring the need to eliminate trade barriers, encourage ease of doing business and diversify products for economic cooperation, he said that effective implementation of comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) establishing closer economic partnership between Pakistan and Malaysia can substantially enhance trade volume between the two countries.
“It is imperative for Pakistan to pursue economic integration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s bloc having a collective GDP size of $3.6 trillion. This will open new avenues for strengthening ties and establishing institutional connections with individual ASEAN members and the collective group.”
He was of the view that Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and Chine-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), being the powerful regional economic transformational tools to stimulate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), offer tremendous opportunities for Malaysian businesses to explore joint ventures and provide a robust avenue to strengthen and elevate economic relations between the two countries.
“Pakistani-Malaysian companies could pursue joint ventures in various sectors such as agriculture, textile, foods, pharmaceutical, sports, footwear, leather, energy sectors, Islamic finance, low-cost housing, infrastructure development, telecommunications, and education etc,” he said.
He said collaborative efforts with Malaysia in training and capacity building of workers can contribute to a surge in remittances from Malaysia.
