Advertisement

Image credit: Astro Awani

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia-Indonesia’s total trade for 2022 is likely to exceed 30% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth compared with 2021 as both countries fully reopened their borders in 2022, facilitating better bilateral flow of goods and services, according to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).

Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz (pic) said within Asean, Indonesia is Malaysia’s second-largest partner in trade and third-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI).

He said the total trade between Malaysia and Indonesia was roughly US$23 billion (RM101.2 billion) in 2021, a 45.5% y-o-y increase compared with 2020.

“For the period of January to November 2022, trade between both countries had already exceeded US$27 billion, approximately 33% more than the corresponding period in 2021,” he said in a statement today.

Tengku Zafrul said in conjunction with the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s official visit to Indonesia on Jan 8-9, 2023, the ministry and its related agencies have expressed their commitment to continue facilitating the expansion of trade and cross-border investments with Indonesia.

The visit by Anwar to Indonesia is the first official visit since taking office on Nov 24.

In terms of investments, Tengku Zafrul said the ministry is looking forward to facilitate more mutual crossborder investments between Malaysia and Indonesia, where collaboration lies in areas such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace, palm-oil processing, consumer goods as well as defence and security.

He said these were reflected in the exchanging of nine memorandums of understanding (MOU) between Malaysian and Indonesian companies with a total potential investment value of more than RM1.6 billion.

Tengku Zafrul said Miti has also spearheaded bilateral talks on Malaysia’s possible investments and co-investments in Indonesia’s planned new capital in East Kalimantan.

Source: https://www.thesundaily.my/business/malaysia-indonesia-2022-trade-growth-likely-to-exceed-30-on-year-ED10469058