By Ahmad Farizal Hajat, NNN-Bernama
Kuwait City : Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz has called on Malaysian firms to diversify their exports to Kuwait to meet the requirements of the booming local economy.
“There is much potential to increase two-way trade between malaysia and Kuwait,” Rafidah said in a keynote address at a seminar on “Malaysia-Kuwait Business Opportunities” here Tuesday.
The seminar was organized by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) in conjunction with a Malaysian trade and investment mission to West Asia led by Rafidah.
“While Malaysia will continue to source petroleum-based products from Kuwait, there is a wide range of products that Malaysia can export to Kuwait to meet the requirements of the booming economy,” she said.
The 106-member mission, comprising representatives from the public and private sectors, covers the three key Gulf cities of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait City in Kuwait and Muscat in Oman.
In diversifying their exports, Rafidah said, Malaysian firms could venture into the Kuwaiti markets for office and home furniture, processed food, and audio visual equipment such as plasma and LCD television sets.
The companies, she said, could also export products like advance display devices such as liquid crystal displays, switching and protecting apparatus, and electro-diagnostic apparatus.
“The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) market is one of the fastest growing regions in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately 592.8 billion USD in 2006, average GDP growth rates of 7.8 per cent and high GDP per capita income of approximately 23,000 USD,” Rafidah said.
“As a member of the GCC, Kuwait can be the base for expanding trade between Malaysia and the GCC market, as well as the larger market in West Asia,” she said.
Kuwait was Malaysia’s fourth largest trading partner among the GCC countries in 2006.
Rafidah said trade between the two countries had been growing steadily over the past decade from 79.3 million USD in 1996 to 506.3 million USD in 2006, recording an average double-digit growth of 16 per cent per annum.
For the first 11 months of last year, total trade between the two countries reached 671.4 million USD, an increase of 49.2 per cent over the same period in 2006. “Malaysia’s exports to Kuwait during this period amounted to US$144.1 million,” she said.
Among the products exported were processed food, which accounted for 20.9 per cent, machinery, appliances and parts (15.6 per cent), wood products (15.5 per cent), electrical and electronic products (12.2 per cent), and manufactures of metal (6.5 per cent).
Malaysia’s imports from Kuwait during the same period amounted to 527.3 million, up by 73.4 per cent compared with 304.0 million USD recorded in the same period in 2006. The two major import items from Kuwait were crude petroleum at 87.5 per cent, and chemicals and chemical products at 10.7 per cent.