October 16: Consul General of Malaysia Khairul Nazran Abd Rahman has said that Malaysia and Pakistan need to agree upon on a new concessional list under the existing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as they have been receiving a lot of requests from different segments for addition of numerous items in the FTA list in which Pakistani Basmati rice was also not included hence it was being imported by Malaysia from India and Vietnam.
Speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), Malaysian CG said that as Pakistani Basmati rice was not in the FTA list, it was not competitive when compared with other countries exporting this important commodity to Malaysia. “Meanwhile, the business communities of both countries must hold regular interactions in order to fully utilize and benefit from the existing FTA which would certainly improve the existing trade ties between the two brotherly countries”, he added.
General Secretary Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI AQ Khalil, President KCCI Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Senior Vice President Arshad Islam, Vice President Shahid Ismail, KCCI Managing Committee members and others also attended the meeting.
Malaysian Consul General pointed out that the volume of trade improved marginally by 2.5 percent to US$1.47 billion in 2018 as compared to US$1.34 billion in 2017. “Malaysia’s Palm oil is a major product, which alone represents 47 percent of total trade while other traditional products including Pakistani textiles are also being exported to Malaysia. We need to do more and must take advantage of the FTA which was enforced in 2008 and must also focus on non-traditional items as well”, he added.
He said that Malaysia and Pakistan must not remain confined to improving the political and economic ties only but other areas of strategic importance particularly defense, education and tourism must also get special attention from both sides. “We are now focusing on promoting and cooperating in the tourism sector as our cooperation has remained mostly on trade and investment. The tourism sector, having immense potential, has to be given attention which would prove beneficial for the two nations”, he added.
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