Pakistan, Malaysia agree to boost, balance trade

Pakistan, Malaysia agree to boost, balance trade

ISLAMABAD (Reuters): Pakistan and Malaysia agreed on Friday to increase and balance bilateral trade which now heavily favors Kuala Lumpur.

Foreign ministers Abdul Sattar of Pakistan and Syed Hamid Albar of Malaysia told a news conference after a two-day meeting of a joint commission that the sides had agreed to encourage Malaysian investment in joint ventures in cash-strapped Pakistan.

"We have agreed on the further enhancement of bilateral trade in a balanced manner," Sattar said in a prepared statement.

"In order to reduce Pakistan's trade deficit with Malaysia, it was agreed to look into ways to narrow the deficit through cooperative endeavors as a package, including also the possibility of relocating labor-intensive industries to Pakistan," he said.

"The private and public sectors working in tandem should bring about the desired transformation."

Albar said the present balance of bilateral trade was "very much in favor of Malaysia", because of large palm oil imports from there by Islamabad, but Malaysian investment in Pakistan amounted to only $500 million.

"Appreciating Malaysia's position as one of the new Asian tigers, we recognize that Malaysian investments can contribute to our economic growth," Sattar said.

"It was, therefore, agreed that Malaysian enterprises would be encouraged to invest in joint ventures, including joint enterprises offered for privatization by our (Pakistani) Privatization Commission," he said.

He said the two sides had also signed a five-year cultural agreement to "enhance cooperation and mutual understanding and people-to-people contacts" between the two countries.