Pakistan and Malaysia must benefit from FTA: CG Malaysia

KARACHI: Consul General of Malaysia Khairul Nazran Abd Rahman has said that the business communities of Pakistan and Malaysia should have regular interactions in order to completely utilise and benefit from the in-effect Free Trade Agreement.

He said that Malaysia and Pakistan need to agree upon a new concessional list as there have been many requests from different sectors to include numerous items in the FTA. He also mentioned that Pakistani Basmati rice was also not in the list, hence it was being imported by Malaysia from India and Vietnam.

Addressing a meeting of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Malaysian CG noted that the trade volume between the two countries has improved marginally by 2.5% to the US$1.47 billion in 2018 as compared to the US$1.34 billion in 2017. “Malaysia’s palm oil is a major product, which alone represents 47% 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.

To read more news and blogs, visit blog.graana.com.