Annual Report

Negligible share in Malaysian imports
LCCI for good trade ties with Malaysia
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid and Vice President
Zeshan Khalil are presenting LCCI souviner to H.E M. Nafees Zakaria Pakistan High Commissioner
designate to Malaysia. LCCI Executive Committee Members Awais Saeed Piracha, Zafar Iqbal
and Ms. Nabila Intisar are also present.
he LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed has said that Pakistan
and Malaysia have close and cordial relations but mutual
trade ties are not as good as these should be. Pakistan has a
negligible share in Malaysian imports of over $ 140 billion.
He was talking to the Pakistan High Commissioner
designate to Malaysia M. Nafees Zakaria here at the Lahore
Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The LCCI Senior Vice
President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed and Vice President
Zeshan Khalil spoke on the occasion while Awais Saeed
Piracha, Naeem Hanif, Nabila Intisar, Zafar Iqbal and
Rizwan Akhter Shamsi were present in the meeting.
Malik Tahir Javed said that the trade analysis between two
countries shows that in the last three years, we could not
bring any improvement in our exports to Malaysia. For
instance, he said, in 2014, the volume of Pakistan exports to
Malaysia was dollar 234 million which reduced to dollar
186 million and dollar 152 million in next two years. In
contrast to that the imports from Malaysia to Pakistan
increased in 2015 from dollar 911 million to dollar 945
million after a year.
The LCCI President said that the balance of trade has
always been in favour of Malaysia and this situation is
prevailing. Over the last five years this gap is constantly
closing but still the total imports from Malaysia are six
times of our exports to Malaysia.
He said that Malaysia and Pakistan have already signed a
Free Trade Agreement which came into effect in January
2008. It has to be taken seriously that we have failed to take
some advantage of this FTA. It provided us good platform
to be utilized for a win-win situation but Pakistan achieved
far lesser than its potential.
Talking about huge dip in bilateral trade which was as
high as dollar 2.97 billion in 2011, the LCCI president
underlined the need to take immediate steps. From 2015 to
2016, the level of bilateral trade has remained stuck to
dollar 1.1 billion. He said that the business community is
trying its level best to make good use of FTA but there has to
be some support provided by the Ministry of Commerce
and especially commercial section of our High
Commission in Malaysia. He said that we want to acquire
some justifiable share in trade with Malaysia. There is a
huge potential of exporting Pakistani rice, fresh fruits like
citrus and mango to Malaysia.
Malik Tahir Javed said that the FTA does provide our
exporters certain edge in the form of duty relief on fruits and
vegetables etc. but due to knowing little about the
packaging and certain requirements related to certification
of food items, they cannot make full utilization of these
opportunities. He said that joint ventures in the fields of
livestock & dairy, food processing, energy, chemicals,
Halal products and especially in light engineering can
further strengthen the trade ties between two countries. He
said that we need to develop good liaison with our Mission
in Malaysia in order to overcome all the challenges
involved in enhancing exports to Malaysia.
Earlier, Pakistan High Commissioner to Malaysia M.
Nafees Zakaria urged Pakistani businessmen to evolve
strategy to tap huge potential that exists in Malaysia.
He said that he would make all out efforts to turn Pakistan
mission in Malaysia into a match-making point for the
business community in the two countries. He said that he
would also utilize Malaysian media to highlight the soft
image of Pakistan as in today’s world media is a strong tool
to propagate information.
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