Malaysia-Czech Republic bilateral trade to surpass US$1.5 billion

KUALA LUMPUR: Bilateral trade between the Czech Republic and Malaysia is expected to surpass US$ 1.5 billion this year, with a steady growth of between five and 10 per cent compared to last year.

Its ambassador to Malaysia, Rudolf Hykl said the steady growth was mainly supported by exports from Malaysia to the Czech Republic of mainly electronics, computer chips and components.

“Malaysia is our largest trading partner in Asean.

“Last year, (the bilateral trade) grew about 25 per cent as compared to 2016.

“The turnover for the first eight months of this year was already more than it was in the same period last year,” he told Bernama in an interview at the embassy here recently.

According to data provided by the embassy, last year’s bilateral trade stood at US$ 1.45 billion ( US$ 1= RM4.19), with over US$ 1.2 billion being Malaysia’s exports to the republic.

Meanwhile, for the first eight months of this year, the trade stood at about US$ 1.26 billion, compared to just US$ 949 million in the same period last year.

The ambassador said he was positive the trade regime between the Czech Republic and Malaysia would be maintained as long as the world economy maintained its positive environment.

Hykl, who has been stationed here for almost five years said the Czech Embassy here would continue to support the diversification of economic engagement between corporations of both countries, especially in technology, industrial and manufacturing.

“That is fairly a wide range of activities ranging from precision engineering, power engineering, automobile components, chemical industry, electronics, and then going to even more sophisticated, new materials like nano technology and bio-medicine,” he said.

Hykl added the embassy did not only focus its efforts on exports, but also all sorts of collaborative projects in technology and industries, especially under the new government of Malaysia.

“The Czech Republic has the capacity to do that.

“In reality, we ( have already) supplied to Malaysia. One of our companies supplies surveillance drones to the civil sector and for geological survey,” he said. — Bernama