KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 (NNN-Bernama) — The ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC) is willing to work with business organisations in Malaysia to form a joint business council (JBC) that could provide a unified platform to explore trade and investment opportunities with India, said AIBC co-chairman Ramesh Kodammal.
Though there is the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) and Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (MICECA), the awareness on how they could be tapped to expand trade between Malaysia and India is still low.
“Many SMEs are not aware and the JBC could be an effective platform to organise such outreach programmes to explain the benefits that could be derived from the agreements,” he told Bernama after hosting dinner in honour of Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia, B.N.Reddy, here, recently.
Present at the dinner were key business leaders, namely President of Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) N. Gobalakrishnan, Deputy President of Malaysia India Business Council (MIBC) N.Puvan, and Founder Chairman of Consortium of Indian Industries in Malaysia (CIIM) Umang Sharma, as well as several other corporate leaders.
Ramesh said the representatives of MAICCI, MIBC and CIIM welcomed the proposal for the formation of JBC that could look into possible collaborations in organising selected activities to complement ongoing programmes with the respective individual organisations, and at the same time contribute to the maximisation of resources utilisation and avoid duplication of activities.
“The post-COVID-19 era requires a paradigm shift in the manner in which business associations can join forces and collaborate to bring value to their individual membership,” he pointed out.
Given the positive comments, he said AIBC is taking the initiative to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the other partners in Malaysia to formalise the JBC under the auspices of the Indian High Commission in Malaysia.
He said AIBC also held discussions to strengthen Malaysia-India economic relations with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economic Affairs) Mustapa Mohamed, recently.
Meanwhile, Reddy, in his speech at the dinner, said that the Indian High Commission in Malaysia is ready to work with all parties concerned if JBC could lead to further strengthening of economic ties between Malaysia and India.
“India views Malaysia as a strategic economic partner and is committed to further increasing not only economic cooperation but across all other pillars such as political and social,” said the diplomat, stressing that he is looking forward to new ideas and willing to work with all business organisations to take the cooperation between Malaysia and India to the next level.
Malaysia-India bilateral trade in 2020 was US$13.2 billion compared to US$14.9 billion the year before (2019) which was dominated by commodities such as palm oil and petroleum, whereas at the regional level, ASEAN-India trade amounted to US$65.6 billion in 2020, compared with US$77.1 billion in 2019.
