Malaysia wants to become Asean hub for Italian products

ROME: Malaysia wants to become a hub to promote Italian products for the Asean market and is looking to scale up its bilateral business with Italy, the birthplace of Leornado Da Vinci.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said it was Malaysia's intention to forge further partnership with the country by venturing into the off-set business agreement.
This, he added, would be a win-win situation for Malaysia in having more Italian technological transfer opportunities while Italy would benefit from the business market.
Zahid said Malaysia was looking at increasing trade in the areas of security, communication, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism as well as attract more investments from Italy.
"Malaysia wants to be Italy's trade partner. Right now we are just the end user of Italy's products," he told Malaysian reporters during his visit to the Malaysian Embassy here on Monday. Also present was Malaysian Ambassador to Italy Datuk Abdul Samad Othman.
At the moment, Malaysia has technology transfer agreement in the defence sector with Italy, said Ahmad Zahid.
As such, he instructed the relevant agencies particularly the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) to liaise with the Italian agencies in realising the effort in trade.
He noted Malaysia received encouraging response from the Italian business community during an international trade exhibition, 2015 Milan Expo, this year.
"The six-month Malaysian pavilion had attracted 3.07 million patrons which showcased our capability in various sectors," he added.
Zahid said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's visit to Italy in October was also the drive to continue a stronger trade relation with Italy.
As of August this year, the trade value between both countries stood at RM5.5 billion, with Malaysia's exports to Italy at 466.3 million euro and imports at 692 million euro.
"Up to September 2015, Italian investment in Malaysia was worth 487 million euro that had created 4,543 employment opportunities in the country," he said.
Malaysia also received 27,227 Italian tourists until July this year and the figure was expected increase to 45,000 by year-end, he added. – Bernama