BRAZILIAN FIRMS SHOULD LEVERAGE ON M'SIA AS GATEWAY TO EXPAND TRADE TO ASEAN REGION

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- Brazilian companies should leverage on
Malaysia as a gateway to expand trade into the Asean region and set up regional
operations and headquarters' here, says International Trade and Industry Deputy
Minister, Mukhriz Mahathir.

He also urged Brazilian investors to take advantage of Malaysia's position as
one of the strongest proponents of trade liberalisation between Asean and its
dialogue partners, as well as the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA).

"We are looking at more exports of electrical and electronics (E&E) products as
this is where we have high, value-added products.

"With an increasing demand for these in Brazil, it opens up more prospects for
Malaysians to further tap the industry," he said after delivering the keynote
address at the "Buyer-Seller Meet", of the Brazilian Trade Mission to Malaysia,
here Monday.

In 2009, Brazil was Malaysia's largest trading partner in Latin America. It was
also ranked Malaysia's 22nd largest trading partner.

Malaysian exports to Brazil amounted to US$640.70 million. However, this only
accounted for a 0.4 per cent share of Brazil's total imports.

"This shows, our bilateral trade is still small. We are confident that
initiatives such as an exchange of business visits, improving the economic
environment and Malaysia's transformation programmes, will contribute towards
increasing the bilateral trade," Mukhriz said.

From January to August this year, total trade between Malaysia and Brazil was
US$1.18 billion, an increase of 24 per cent compared to the same period last
year.

Currently, the main Brazilian products exported to Malaysia are iron ore, sugar
cane, corn grain, cars and tobacco leaves.

He said as Brazil would be hosting the football World Cup 2014 and the 2016
Olympic Games, it serves as an enormous economic potential, specifically
infrastructure development through joint venture (JV) cooperation.

"We welcome any suggestions to include Malaysia in Brazil's efforts to publicise
and promote other sectors of the country's economy that are open for
privatisation and JV participation," the deputy minister said.

Brazil's mining giant, Vale International SA, the world's largest producer of
iron ore and pellets is poised to be one of Malaysia’s largest investors with a
proposed logistics hub in Perak worth over US$1 billion.

Commenting on this, Mukhriz said with MIDA having given approval for the
proposal and the Perak state government agreeing to the operation, the project
is expected to commence by 2012.

Brazil is set to be the fifth largest economy in the world by 2025 and the
country with abundant natural resources, will be the critical player in the
global food supply chain of the future.

Mukhriz also said Brazilian companies should use Malaysia as a base to venture
into halal food production locally and maximise the opportunity of distribution
globally.

Other areas of opportunities are manufacturing, machinery, aerospace industry
and green technology industries.

The Brazilian Buyer-Seller Meet on Monday is expected to promote new lucrative
trade partnerships with local businesses that would further develop and
strengthen ties between both countries.
-- BERNAMA




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