Excerpts from YB Minister’s speech during MITI Dialogue 2009
MITI continues to negotiate FTAs to open markets for businesses. Malaysia has signed and implemented bilateral FTAs with Japan and Pakistan and recently concluded negotiations with New Zealand. Malaysia is also a party to five regional FTAs namely ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Korea, ASEAN-Japan, ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand and ASEAN-India. Currently, Malaysia is negotiating bilateral FTAs with the US, India, Chile and Australia, and the regional ASEAN-EU FTA.
Malaysian companies should capitalise on the regional and bilateral FTAs to gain an edge over their competitors, particularly under these trying times. It should be worth noting that the number of certificates of origin issued by MITI to our exporters, under the preferential schemes of the five regional ASEAN FTAs and the ASEAN CEPT increased 13.0 per cent to 222,476 in 2008. The number of companies exporting under the various FTAs has also increased from 4,160 in 2007 to...
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