EU KEEN TO AID M'SIAN FIRMS VIA FUNDS FROM EU INVESTMENT BANK - PIKET

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 (Bernama) -- The European Union is keen to assist
Malaysian firms through funds available from the European Investment Bank, says
Vincent Piket, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission to
Malaysia.

He said negotiations are on-going between the EU and the Malaysian
government.

"We've presented to the government a draft loan framework agreement, This is
the basic agreement for loans to be signed.

"Now that the document is being studied, we look forward to the feedback.
Certainly, we can sign this agreement soon," he told Bernama in an interview.

Piket said one important thing to stress is that: "This is one way
the EU can support the economic development of countries in Asia, including
Malaysia."

He said the European Investment Bank has allocated one billion euro fund
(about RM5 billion) to be disbursed for projects in Asia.

"We are very keen to work with Malaysian companies to get their projects off
the ground" he said, adding that they are looking forward for
speedier feedback from the Malaysian side.

On the eight million euro programme to boost economic collaborations
with Malaysia, Piket said: "We've agreed on the general objectives of the
programme.

"We're now busy with our discussions with several ministries (government)
about the precise use of the money.

"Right now we see three key sectors, first of all, forestry and
sustainable management of the sector. This is a project to be linked to our
timber trade agreement we are negotiating with Malaysia.

"The second sector is agriculture. We are keen to respond to
the interest from the Malaysian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry to
talk about how to develop new crops and to develop rural areas where there is
tremendous scope for wealth development and poverty eradication," he said.

"Thirdly, is the services sector. This evidently is a growth sector for
Malaysia and other countries. We are in negotiations with relevant ministries to
support the sector's gowth and what the industry wants to put in place," he
added.

-- BERNAMA