  
News From : DagangHalal.com (03 Aug 2009)
MELBOURNE, Aug 3 (Bernama) — Malaysian firms have been urged to team up with their Australian counterparts to exploit business opportunities in Australia in view of its economic strength.
Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, said they should expand into property development, building and construction, trading and related services, hospitality, engineering and mining sectors.
“We want to encourage local companies to seriously consider opportunities available in Australia. Malaysian investments in Australia amounted to A$130.6 million (A$1=RM2.87) last year,” he said at a seminar on “Investment Opportunities in Malaysia” here.
The seminar, part of a two-day trade and investment mission starting today, was organised by Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade).
Also present were MIDA director-general Datuk Jalilah Baba, Matrade deputy chief executive officer (trade promotion) Dr Wong Lai Sum, and Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia, Salman Ahmad.
Mustapa said Australian companies were invited to continue working with universities and venture capital firms as well as set up their regional operations in Malaysia.
“Of the Australian companies in Malaysia, 13 have set up their operational headquarters, 49 representative and regional offices, 29 have MSC status and several institutions have been operating in Labuan International Offshore Financial centre, he said.
He said Australia has emerged as Malaysia’s largest source of foreign investments in 2008 with A$4.52 billion compared with A$11.51 billion in 2007, an increase of 37 percent.
“A total of 274 manufacturing projects from Australia have been implemented with investments of more than A$654 million,” he said.
Mustapa said there was considerable scope for increasing bilateral trade between in a broad category of goods and services such as in halal sector.
“The halal products and services are among the world’s fastest growing global business with a built-in consumer base of 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide.
“Australian companies can look at increasing their sourcing from Malaysia as we produce a wide variety of quality halal products and services,” he said.
From Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar
— BERNAMA