MALAYSIA'S BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES SHOWCASED TO INDIA INVESTORS

By Shakir Husain

NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (Bernama) -- Business opportunities in Malaysia were presented to a leading Indian trade association at a seminar held in New Delhi to promote bilateral economic ties.

Officials from a number of Malaysian government agencies highlighted potential areas for business growth at the "Interactive Session on Doing Business with Malaysia" jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the High Commission of Malaysia.

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Trade between Malaysia and India grew by 9.9 per cent to US$7.7 billion in the first half of 2018 and the two countries hope to achieve their target of US$15 billion in annual trade by 2020, Malaysian High Commissioner to India Datuk Hidayat Abdul Hamid said.

The volume of trade last year grew 21.6 per cent to US$14.3 billion.

Hidayat said Malaysia's strengths in areas like infrastructure, healthcare, construction, palm oil and petroleum products are well known and many top Malaysian companies are active in India.

He said Indian companies are similarly growing their presence in Malaysia in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, engineering and information technology.

"We welcome more investment from India. FICCI members may explore more investment opportunities in Malaysia.

"We would like to encourage more importers to source from Malaysia since we have bilateral trade agreements namely the Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (MICECA) and the regional trade agreement ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA)," he said.

The Malaysian agencies participating in the event on Monday included Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Tourism Malaysia, Malaysian Timber Council and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA).

-- BERNAMA