2017 Malaysia-China Trade Target Hard To Achieve: Malaysian Minister

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia), Jan 5 (Bernama) -- Raising the value of two-way trade between Malaysia and China to US$160 billion by 2017 from US$100 billion currently would be difficult due to the slowdown in China's economy, said Mustapa Mohamed. The International Trade and Industry Minister said China's economy is projected to grow only by 6.5 per cent this year, affecting the global economy. "China's economic growth once reached 10 per cent, it was around 6.9 per cent last year, and this year it is said to be 6.5 per cent. "That's still good growth in the country's context, but is still a slight decline, and affects the world and us (Malaysia), and we feel we won't achieve the target of US$160 billion by 2017," he told reporters after a briefing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) here Tuesday. Mustapa said his ministry is holding nationwide briefings on the TPPA before the document is presented and debated in the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysia's House of Representatives) on Jan 26 and 27 followed by a special session of the Dewan Negara (Senate) on Jan 28. A major challenge is explaining the benefits of the TPPA in simple language to the grassroots as a way to brush aside negative comments from various quarters, he said. "The government wants the people to know about the TPPA before the document reaches Parliament. It won't be fair if Members of Parliament understand it but the people don't know of the implications if the nation participates in the TPPA," he said. Mustapa said the government has promised to address the grassroots' concerns about higher cost of living if Malysia signed the TPPA. Twelve countries participated in the TPPA negotiations, which began in 2005 -- Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. -- BERNAMA