Malaysia-India Economic Pact Bearing Fruit

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- Closer economic linkages between Malaysia and economic powerhouse India are beginning to pay off with two-way trade set to touch US$11 billion this year. International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said this could be achieved based on the significant growth in trade activities between the two countries in the first nine months of 2011 whereby "trade jumped substantially by 35 per cent to US$9.5 billion." He attributed the burgeoning trade volume to dividends from the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between them which came into force in July. "I don't think we will have any problem in getting US$11 billion by the year-end (and) we can exceed the targeted US$15 billion by 2015... that's a possibility given the growth of the Indian and Malaysian economies and some cuts in tariffs," he told reporters after delivering a special keynote address at the India-Malaysia Trade Investment Forum here on Monday. In terms of investment, Mustapa said Malaysia would like to see more Indian automotive component firms as well as small and medium enterprises invest in Malaysia. Currently, Indian companies investing in Malaysia were concentrated within the manufacturing sector as well as in textiles, he said. To date, Mustapa said 106 projects in Malaysia valued at US&1.1 billion involved Indian companies while in India, Malaysian companies were involved in projects worth US$2.8 billion. The forum, attended by 80 companies, was held in conjunction with the Indian Textile Exposition in Asean (INTEXPO) from Nov 22 to 24 at the Matrade Exhibition & Convention Centre in Jalan Duta. -- BERNAMA Malaysia