By NNN-Bernama
Putrajaya (Malaysia) : Malaysia and India are hoping to sign their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as soon as possible, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said here Monday.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has been negotiating the deal. “We hope to conclude all matters in the fastest time possible,” Syed Hamid told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from visiting Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony at Wisma Putra.
Trade between the two nations increased to some US$ 8 billion last year.
“Both parties want the FTA signed as soon as possible,” Syed Hamid said, adding that Malaysia also hoped that India would sign a similar FTA with Asean to further enhance ties between the ten Asean member states and India.
“So far we have cleared all issues as regards to the FTA between Asean and India. The only outstanding issue, I think, is on palm oil. We hope this too can be concluded in the near future,” he added.
On another matter, the Foreign Minister said New Delhi also wanted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia in view of the huge number of Indians working here.
“We are looking into it and the Human Resources Ministry is handling the matter. The government has in principle agreed to the MoU. They (the Indian government) wants it expedited.”
“I have also explained to them that we want a proper system in bringing these foreign workers as we already have about two million foreign labour here. They understand our situation and hope that we could streamline the process,” he added.