KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Saudi Arabia companies on Tuesday (Feb 28) signed seven memorandums of understanding (MOUs) in various areas, including construction, halal cooperation, aerospace and haj services, with an estimated total value of about RM9.74 billion (S$3 billion). Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed said the signing of the MOUs signalled growing interests from both countries to leverage on mutual strengths in achieving business goals.
These MOUs would complement the government-to-government pacts that were signed with the Saudi State Minister Dr Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf on Monday, he said. “As Saudi Arabia is moving away from its reliance on oil revenue, we would like to encourage Saudi investors to explore the business potentials in new growth areas particularly advanced technology products,” he said. Mustapa said this in his welcome speech at the Malaysia-Saudi Arabia Business Forum held in conjunction with the State Visit of King Salman Abdul Aziz Al Saud. He invited Saudi multinational corporations (MNCs) to follow in the footsteps of other MNCs to take advantage of Malaysia’s Principal Hub scheme. This would enable the kingdom’s MNCs to use Malaysia as a base to boost their key strategic value-adding functions towards becoming more cost-efficient, he said.
The one-day forum is jointly held by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp and Malaysian Investment Development Authority. The forum aims to promote and highlight business and investment opportunities in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as well as provide a platform to discuss and exchange views on issues related to trade and investments and ways to enhance bilateral economic ties.
