Malaysian trade delegation to visit Sri Lanka in May

A team of Malaysian businessmen and investors will arrive in Sri Lanka next month to explore bilateral trade and investment opportunities.

“Malaysia will lead a special marketing mission to Sri Lanka from May 27-30, 2012 to determine bilateral trade and investment opportunities in Sri Lanka,” Malaysia’s High Commissioner in Colombo Azmi Zainuddin has said.

Presenting a seminar on ‘Bilateral Trade between Sri Lanka and Malaysia’, organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), Zainuddin has said that there is ‘lot of scope to improve trade’ between the two countries and the Malaysian government is targeting US$ 1 billion bilateral trade with Sri Lanka in the future.

According to the diplomat, Malaysian investors are keen to explore opportunities in Sri Lanka’s real state, manufacturing and tourism sectors.

The High Commissioner has noted that Sri Lanka can serve as a hub for Malaysian businesses intending to penetrate the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.

He has told the audience that the Malaysian Government is also expected to promote and develop Islamic banking in Sri Lanka, including insurance and Halal industries.

“I believe that similarities in the cultures of the two countries will give us ready access to Sri Lankan markets,” Zainudeen has said at the seminar.

In 2011, total trade between Sri Lanka and Malaysia stood at US$ 814 million. Malaysia’s exports to Sri Lanka in 2011 grew 38 per cent over the previous year to US$ 644 million Malaysian imports from Sri Lanka amounted to US$ 170 million during the same year.

Major exports to Malaysia from Sri Lanka included garments, tea, gems and Jewellery, handicraft, rubber, coconut and spices while Sri Lanka imported textiles and clothing, petroleum, machinery and equipment and milk products among other things.