Kuala Lumpur, May 4 – Malaysia and Bahrain have identified five sectors for further collaboration namely (i) Information Communication Technology (ICT), (ii) Banking and Financial Services especially on Islamic banking, (iii) Tourism, (iv) Logistics, and (v) Manufacturing.
This was agreed when Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the Minister of International Trade and Industry met with Zayed R. Alzayani, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Kingdom of Bahrain in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to discuss economic matters between Malaysia and Bahrain.
During the meeting, both Ministers acknowledged the huge potentials in strengthening the two countries’ bilateral trade and investment ties.
Later in the evening at Putrajaya, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa witnessed the signing of Government-to-Government (G2G) Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Both Mustapa and Zayed signed the MoU on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Industrial Cooperation between the two Governments.
The MoU will be a basis for both Malaysia and Bahrain to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in the development of SMEs and industries.
In 2016, Bahrain registered the highest growth in trade with Malaysia (97.6%) among the West Asian countries reaching RM861.35 million (USD207.33 million) compared to RM435.99 million (USD112.05 million) in 2015. Exports to Bahrain rose by 17.8% to RM266.24 million (USD64.38 million) whilst imports grew substantially by 183.5% to RM595.12 million (USD142.95 million) in 2016.
To date, there are five Bahraini companies with operations in the services sector in Malaysia, especially in financing. On the other hand, thus far, the Malaysian companies have completed 14 construction projects in Bahrain worth RM4.02 billion (US$1.24 billion) and has one on-going project worth RM1.213 billion (US$380 million).