Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said the Malaysian government will try to facilitate Malaysian companies operating in Gulf states, and at the same time draw more investors from the Gulf to Malaysia. “We want the flow to go both ways,” he told Bernama during the final leg of his week-long trade and investment mission to Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia that ended on Sunday. He said that presently in Saudi Arabia alone, Malaysian companies were involved in projects worth about RM12bil including in university construction and power generation. “This is a big figure. This shows that while Malaysian companies already have a name in Saudi Arabia, there are still new opportunities including in the field of monorail in specific areas of Saudi Arabia,” he said. He also hoped trade relations between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia will continue to rise. Saudi Arabia was Malaysia's second largest trading partner in West Asia in 2008 with total trade amounting to RM11.1bil, or 20.3 percent, of Malaysia's trade with the region and 0.9 percent of Malaysia's global trade. Exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to RM3.5bil and imports RM7.6bil in 2008 while in the January-July period this year, trade with Saudi Arabia amounted to RM4.1bil. As at December 2008, Saudi companies implemented three manufacturing projects in Malaysia involving a capital investment of RM80.6mil in electrical and electronics, and textile products. In the non-manufacturing sector, significant investments were in information communications and technology-related, property and financial services. Among well known Saudi companies with investments in Malaysian interest are Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi Telekom. Mustapa, who met assistant secretary-general for Economic Affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Mohd Obeid Al Mazroui Saturday, said the GCC secretariat would bring together businessmen from their countries and their renowned Malaysian counterparts to promote and also highlight business and trade opportunities both in the Gulf and Malaysia. GCC is a cooperative framework joining UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait to effect coordination, integration and inter-connection among member states in all fields.
