Malaysia, India need to explore vast trade potential

KUALA LUMPUR: The potential to increase trade between Malaysia and India need to be further explored to reap the benefits from growing markets in both countries.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said huge trade opportunities between Malaysia and India remained unexploited despite both countries setting a target to achieve bilateral trade worth US$15 billion (US$1=RM4.08) by 2020.

“Trade between Malaysia and India is worth about US$12 billion last year and hopefully, in the next couple of years, it will go up to US$15 billion,” he said in his keynote address at the Economic Times Asian Business Leaders Conclave 2017 yesterday.

He said India’s trade with the Asean region is also considered to be below par, given the size of India’s economy.

“In terms of India-Asean trade, the amount is about US$60 billion, and this is considered small considering the size of India,” he said.

Mustapa said India’s performance in trade is seen to be below that of Asean despite both economies having almost identical gross domestic product of US$2.5 trillion.

“Our total trade in Asean is also about US$2.5 trillion but India’s total trade is between US$800 billion and US$900 billion.

“Therefore, given the rapid growth of India and Asean, the potential of achieving higher trade is tremendous,” he added. — Bernama