Pakistan and Malaysia trade ties have been put on a growth trajectory as the two countries recorded a phenomenal 36% increase in bilateral trade in 2021.
The development was shared by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Malaysian High Commission Deddy Faisal Ahmad Salleh at Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) on February 10.
Appreciating the increase in bilateral trade, Faisal Ahmad Salleh shared that Malaysia is heading towards a “high income economy” and its benefits are also being enjoyed by the people of this country. “Malaysian Government is heavily investing in its human resource capital which would help it to achieve sustainable economic goals very soon.” Malaysia’s economic growth is around 4.5% which is expected to jump to 5% next year.
“Malaysia has huge potential for foreign investment as it provides a huge ASEAN market of 15 countries comprising 39% population of this economic block,” he said inviting Pakistani investors to benefit from these opportunities in Malaysia. He lauded the excellent performance of Pakistan in the IT sector and said that Malaysia has also excelled in animation.
Addressing the business communuty, he said that although he is just completing his diplomatic stay in Pakistan, he will always remain accessible to the business community of Pakistan.
Faisal Salleh also appreciated the initiative of the FCCI to hold a national level economic conference and requested President Atif Munir to send him a formal invitation so that he could convince Kuala Lumpur and other chambers of Malaysia as well as relevant Malaysian ministeries to participate in it.
He said that Pakistan and Malaysia have enjoyed good diplomatic relations since 1957 which has now gained strategic importance. He also mentioned the recent visit of Malaysian Foreign Minister Saiful Din Abdullah and said that with the visit of Mahathir Mohamad our relations have been enhanced at the multilateral stages.
FCCI resident Atif Munir said that Faisalabad, the third major city of Pakistan, is playing a key role in the national economy. “This city is contributing 45% share in the total textile export of Pakistan in addition to catering 80% domestic needs of clothing”, he said and added that two major industrial estates have been established which are providing international level facilities to the prospective industrialists and investors.
He shared that 65 Chinese units are already operative in addition to 11 other countries. He said that many more are in the pipeline and they are expecting that these units would start their production within the next couple of years.
He also underlined the importance of the need for B2B meetings between the businessmen of two countries.
FCCI Executive member Muhammad Azhar Chaudhary briefed about the proposed economic conference and said that being Muslim countries Pakistan and Malaysia should launch joint ventures for the production and export of Hilal products across the globe.