UK Minister Optimistic Malaysia Will Achieve High-Income Status By 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 (Bernama) -- UK is optimistic Malaysia will achieve the high-income nation status in 2020, given the great progress in line with the goal, said its Minister without Portfolio, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi. She hailed the Malaysian government's initiatives towards, what she termed an "ambitious" goal. Even though the aim was ambitious, Warsi said, great progress had been made, thanks to the government's hard work and all Malaysians, generally. "This is also the result of Malaysia's liberalisation agenda and going a long way to lower trade barriers, most recently supporting the free trade agreement (FTA) between Europe and Malaysia. "The FTA would allow the country to benefit from the best goods and services and to do business in the European Union (EU) market," Warsi said, adding that the EU market was larger than the US and Japan combined. She said this at a luncheon hosted by Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) here in conjunction with her two-day working visit starting Sunday. Warsi, the first Muslim to serve as a full member of the British Cabinet, is also the co-chairman of British Conservative Party. She said while Europe remained as an important market, British businesses must, however, looked further afield to the Asean nations, of which Malaysia was a perfect market to choose, with good existing ties and business opportunities. "Our exporters are already finding Malaysia an attractive market," she said. Warsi said Britain was also looking to meet a number of Islamic finance experts from Malaysia on how to expand the Islamic finance services in London. "The British government is determined to put the economy back on track in partnership with high-growth economies such as Malaysia," she said. In 2011, the UK was Malaysia's fourth largest trading partner in the European Union with a total trade of RM13.03 billion (US$4.23 billion) while Malaysia was Britain's second largest trading partner in Asean. In manufacturing sector, total investment from British firms stood at RM19.17 billion (US$6.23 billion) for implemented and approved projects. --BERNAMA