An official Malaysian delegation visited Egypt last week as part of a Middle Eastern tour, Mona El-Fiqi reports A high level delegation headed by Malaysia's minister of international trade and industry, Mustafa Mohamed, was in Cairo last week. The delegation included Malaysian officials and representatives of 13 of Malaysia's biggest companies in a variety of sectors, such as banking, construction, infrastructure and highway development, the automotive industry, petrochemical manufacturing, and processed foods and fast moving consumer goods. The visit is part of a tour by the Malaysian delegation to enhance trade and investment cooperation and explore investment opportunities in the Middle East. Mohamed said that Malaysia seeks to devise a programme to promote cooperation with Middle Eastern countries and activate trade, investment and economic cooperation deals in the region. During the visit, Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and Minister Mohamed signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) establishing the EgyptianMalaysian Joint Trade and Investment Council. They also witnessed the signing of MoUs between Malaysia's External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and the Egyptian Commercial Service on Cooperation in Trade Promotion, an MoU of general cooperation between the Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank) and the National Bank of Egypt, and an MoU between Malaysia's Furniture Industry Technology Centre (FITEC) and Egypt's Industrial Training Council on collaboration in the field of furniture industry training. Establishing the Joint Trade and Investment Committee will help facilitate bilateral cooperation between the two countries by creating direct links between the private sectors in Egypt and Malaysia. "Joint business committees have proved to be a strategic communication tools between members of the private sector, which can drive economic cooperation between countries," noted Rachid. "We believe that this committee will do the same for Egypt and Malaysia by identifying viable areas of cooperation as well as the challenges that can hinder this cooperation. This committee will then work with the government in order to address these challenges, because the role of the government is to facilitate cooperation in order to boost the ability of Egyptian companies to increase their trade and industrial activities, as well as to identify potential partnerships in investment." Rachid visited Malaysia in January of this year, noting that the country is emerging as a strategic market for Egypt in Asia for economic cooperation on both the industrial and trade fronts. "Right now, our economic cooperation is humble, however both sides recognise that this presents growth opportunities for all involved. We, as Egypt, recognise that for us to achieve the needed level of growth in order to continue to generate jobs, we will have to expand into new markets, and Malaysia is one of the markets that holds great potential in Asia for Egyptian production and industrial cooperation." According to the Malaysian minister, the time is ripe to crystallise past cooperation efforts and mutual visits between Egypt and Malaysia into specific projects with a view to developing bilateral economic and investment relations. He said Malaysia views cooperation with Egypt as the main gateway to achieving economic cooperation with Middle Eastern countries. During the visit, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin met with the Malaysian delegation. Mohieldin stressed the importance of the visit and lauded the great progress made in the development process in Malaysia, saying Egypt's government is looking forward to drawing on Malaysian experience in key domains, particularly financial services, credit classification, asset management, research and development, building and construction and infrastructure-associated fields, metallurgical industries and technology transfer. Bilateral trade between Egypt and Malaysia during the first two quarters of 2009 reached $441.3 million with Egyptian exports to Malaysia accounting for $15 million and Egyptian imports from Malaysia reaching $426.3 million. In 2008, bilateral trade between the two countries stood $825.2 million, with Egyptian exports to Malaysia reaching $108 million and Egyptian imports from Malaysia at $717.2 million. Egyptian exports to Malaysia in 2007, at $88.9 million, almost doubled compared to exports in 2006, which stood at $49.6 million. Exports during the period from January to September 2008 reached $92.1 million. Total Malaysian investments in Egypt in 2008 reached $18 million.
