KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia-China bilateral trade reached RM237.96 billion for the first 10 months of this year, up 24.1 percent from RM191.65 billion in the same period last year.
Export value during the period also increased 33.5 per cent to RM103.32 billion from RM77.4 billion.
The increase was due to higher export volume in electrical and electrical (E&E) products, petroleum products as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG), chemicals and chemical products as well as rubber products.
For imports, it recorded an increase of 17.8 per cent to RM134.64 billion compared to RM114.29 billion for the previous year.
Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong said trade deficit for the period under review declined to RM31.32 billion from RM36.87 billion previously.
He said this year, China has also remained the largest trading partner of Malaysia for the ninth consecutive year.
"Increasing exports from growing sectors such as food and other sectors has been the main reasons for our export value to China to grow, apart from relying on E&E products, palm oil and other commodities.
"This is a positive thing for the country as it shows Malaysia does not rely on one product only for export as emphasised by the National Export Council. It is important for us to diversify our export and market products.
"So I think for this year for first 10 months, there is an increase in terms of trade and exports not only to China, but also the European Union, Japan, the United States and ASEAN are also rising," he said.
He was speaking at a press conference after officiating the Malaysia-ASEAN Small and Medium Enterprise (CASTPP) Trade Promotion Platform Business Forum at the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) here today.
Also present were CASTPP Executive Secretary Gao Hang and MATRADE Chief Executive Officer Ir Dr Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros.
Meanwhile, Tee Yong said to date, the CASTPP, which was launched in December last year, has successfully exported over 300 product stock piles valued at almost RM1 million to China.
He said the products exported by the local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were mostly food and beverages.
"Through CASTPP, we want to help SMEs enter the Chinese market which is geographically challenging to do alone because of the size of the market.
"However, we do not force SMEs to join this platform if they want to do it on their own. We want to highlight that this CASTPP is one of the initiatives prepared by MATRADE to help penetrate the Chinese market.
"We also did not set any target through this non profit-based platform because it is not obligatory for SMEs to use it," he said.