VN, Malaysia check out trade, investment prospects
TRADE between Vietnam and Malaysia has increased dramatically in recent years but they still have great untapped potential, a seminar heard in Ho Chi Minh City last week.
Spea k ing at Gateway into the Malaysia Market through Selangor Internationa l Business Summit 2019 organised by Invest Sela ngor Bhd a nd t he Invest ment a nd Trade Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh Cit y (ITPC), Faiza l Izany Mastor, t rade commissioner of t he Malaysia Extern a l Tr a d e De v e l o p ment Cor porat ion, sa id t he t wo count r ies ta rget $15 bi l l ion worth of trade by next year. It was $11.5 billion last year. His country is the eighth largest investor in Vietnam with nearly $12.5 billion in 586 projects, Mastor said.
ITPC deputy director Nguyen Tuan said: “Many Malaysian enterprises have come to Ho Chi Minh City to seek business opportunities in the last 12 months.”
The seminar would help local businesses get the latest market information and learn about opportunities and challenges in the Malaysian market, especially the halal market, he said.
Mastor said: “Vietnam has strength in agriculture and aquaculture. I think there are very huge areas of opportunity for Vietnamese companies to export to Malaysia.”
To successfully promote their products in his country, he said Vietnamese companies should “understand the culture and preferences of Malaysian people”.
“In addition to that, Vietnamese companies also need to be equipped with certification for products. By having all this, I believe Vietnamese companies can easily penetrate Malaysia.”
Dato’ Teng Chang Khim, Sel a ngor St a t e Executi v e Councillor for Investment, Industry and Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprises, said there is a lot of cooperation opportunities between Vietnamese and Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“Vietnam is a very important manufacturing country while Malaysia is very strong in services and trading. Therefore, we can cooperate, with Malaysia introducing and marketing products from Vietnam.
“Malaysia also has strength in logistics. For example, we have t he second largest seapor t in Sout heast Asia a f ter Si ngapore, a nd t he cost i s much cheaper i n Malaysia t han in Singapore. This is a f ield in which we ca n work wit h Viet na mese manufacturers so t hat our infrastructure can be f ully utilised by t he business communit y in Vietnam.”
It is very important for products from Southeast Asia to be shipped outside Asean, he said.
He also called on Vietnamese SMEs to participate in the Selangor International Expo and Selangor International Business Summit to be held in October in Kuala Lumpur to get more information about the Malaysian and Southeast Asian markets.
The expo, which focuses on food and beverages, would be a good platform for Vietnamese enterprises to “showcase their food and beverages to the world”, he said.
The summit is not only a gateway to the Malaysian market but also a springboard to the broader Asean market which has over 600 million consumers and more than 200 of the world’s largest companies, he said.
It is ex pected to have 850 booths from 40 countries and receive 30,0 0 0 v i sitor s, he added.
Halal certification
The seminar also touched on the halal certification requirement in Muslim countries.
Zukarnine Shah Zainal Abidin, representative of Halal International Selangor, said by 2030 the global halal market is expected to be between $7.7 trillion and $30.6 trillion.
“Halal certification is becoming more relevant in today’s market mainly because people are more aware of the halal concept.
“The certification is becoming essential to expand market reach,” he said.