Malaysia keen to invest in infrastructure, housing

KARACHI: Malaysia is interested in investing in infrastructure, housing and telecommunication sectors of Pakistan and both countries need to widen bilateral trade, which stood at $1.34 billion in 2017.

Malaysian Ministry of Primary Industries Deputy Minister Shamsul Iskandar bin Mohammad stated this at a press conference on Saturday.

Presenting the opportunities, he suggested that Pakistani businessmen could export meat to Malaysia right after obtaining Halal and hygiene certificates. "Pakistan has been an important customer of Malaysian palm oil since the 1970s; this relationship has been translated into trade and investment cooperation," the deputy minister said.



Malaysia has a bulk storage facility for edible oil at Port Qasim, a joint-venture project dating back to the 1990s. Later, it invested in a refinery, named Mapak Edible Oils, to process crude palm oil and produce downstream products, he said.

With the import of 1.37 million tons of Malaysian palm products in 2017, Pakistan was the fourth largest importer after India, the European Union and China.

Pakistan has also emerged as an important market for palm kernel cake, which is used as an ingredient for animal feed.

After a controversy emerged about nutritional properties in the saturated fat, Malaysia introduced the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) in 2013. "MSPO is at final stages this year," the deputy minister shared.

"With this standard, Malaysia pledges that every drop of our palm oil is produced in a sustainable manner."