Malaysia to review and revise FTA this year

Malaysia is going to review and revise Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this year which was signed between Pakistan and Malaysian three years ago. Talking to newsmen at luncheon with media fraternity of Karachi, out going Consul General of Malaysian, Mohd Khalid Ab dur Razak said that FTA was signed on November 2007 between the two countries for three years.
He said that the agreement is the bilateral FTA between two Muslim countries among the OIC. The agreement is Pakistan's first comprehensive FAT incorporating trade in goods, trade in services, investment and economic co-operation and Malaysian first bilateral FTA with any South Asian country.
He said that the relations between the two countries could be further increased and enhanced by establishing a wide economic co-operation and private partnership between Malaysian and Pakistani private sectors.
To achieve this goal, he said in March 2011 Joint Business Council (JBC) was launched to provide the private sectors of both the countries a formal platform to interact with each other for business networking and match making which in turn would help in promoting trade and investment between the two countries.
Khalid Abdur Razak said Malaysia is interested to import rice, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, live stock, and fish from Pakistan.
Malaysia also seek Pakistan assistance in developing Malaysian live stock sector which may include transfer of technology from Pakistan for the artificial segmentation and development of vaccines collaboration in biotechnology and pharmaceutical field in the live stock sectors.
Replying to a question about import of mango from Pakistan, he said India is offering mango at 5 dollars per kg whereas Pakistan is offering 16 dollars per kg.
He said although Pakistani mangoes are better in taste than Indian but they have some black spots that are hampering its export.
Referring to tourism, he said Malaysian is a small country attracting around 24.5 million tourists and generating about 14.5 billion dollars. Pakistan also has beautiful natural and historical sites that can attract huge tourists with little efforts.
Referring to high oil prices, he said Malaysia is interested to promote bio-fuel developed from palm oil as an alternative of petrol.
He said Malaysia continues to become an international and preferred hub for Islamic financial and banking, halal industries, tourism destinations and higher education center of excellence.
Referring to the trillion dollars world market of halal products, Khalid Abdur Razak said that in this huge business Pakistan share is zero.
He was of the view that Pakistan must promote halal products to get its share in this market.