Malaysian companies and their Saudi Arabian counterparts signed on Tuesday preliminary agreements for seven deals worth more than $2 billion. The deals, valued at 9.74 billion ringgit ($2.19 billion), will cover joint ventures and cooperation in several sectors including oil and gas, Islamic finance, Shariah compliant products, the halal industry and manufacturing, Malaysia's Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed said at a press conference. Among the local companies that signed the MOUs were Halal Industry Development Corp, Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, Dewina Holdings Sdn Bhd, Majlis Amanah Rakyat and Silvertech Global Sdn Bhd. Also present were Saudi Arabis's Governor of Small and Medium Enterprise Authority Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, Chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers Hamdan Alssomaireen and President of National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia Datuk Ter Leong Lap. A one-day Malaysia-Saudi Arabia Business Forum was also held in conjunction with the State Visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. Mustapa invited Saudi multinational corporations (MNCs) to follow in the footsteps of other MNCs to take advantage of Malaysia's Principal Hub scheme. This would enable the Kingdom's MNCs to use Malaysia as a base to boost their key strategic value-adding functions towards becoming more cost-efficient, he said. The one-day forum is jointly held by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp and Malaysian Investment Development Authority.
