RIYADH, Oct 21 — The cooperation between Asean member states and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will open more opportunities for bilateral trade and investment between the blocs.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said this will be done through the existing expertise sharing and export network between Malaysian companies and GCC, specifically in Saudi Arabia.
“Malaysian companies that cooperate with local companies in Saudi Arabia can also share their expertise and capital to assist the investments in the kingdom.
“This shows that GCC and Asean will engage in two-way trade and investment, not just one-way,” he told the Malaysian media after attending a meet and greet session with Malaysian diaspora in Saudi Arabia yesterday.
Zafrul also announced that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in his working visit in conjunction with the Asean-GCC Summit, will have a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil and gas player Saudi Aramco and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund to broaden bilateral investments.
“Investments from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, has reached about US$6.6 billion, as announced by the prime minister, who is also finance minister,” said Zafrul.
In terms of investment, at present, the UAE is the largest investor in Malaysia from West Asia and is the second biggest among the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries.
A total of RM6.19 billion investments comprising 44 manufacturing projects from the UAE were approved as of June 2023, with the potential to generate 4,534 job opportunities.
Asean is the fifth biggest economic bloc in the world with a population of 680 million and gross domestic product size of US$3.7 trillion.
— Bernama
