KUALA LUMPUR: Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry has secured RM8.33 billion of potential exports from Thailand companies.
Among the potential products the companies intended to import from Malaysia are liquefied natural gas, crude petroleum, chemical solvents, bitumen, automotive parts, fertilisers, polymer resin's and electronic components.
This follows the ministry's two-day trade and investment mission to Thailand from Aug 15-16, which was led by its minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
He was accompanied by the Malaysian ambassador to Thailand Datuk Jojie Samuel, as well as representatives from the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) and the Malaysia Investment Development Authority (Mida).
"We look forward to facilitating these latest sourcing commitments from the Thai companies, including in the halal sector which holds a lot of untapped potential for both countries," Tengku Zafrul said in a statement today.
He attended a roundtable meeting with top officials from 12 prominent Thai companies and one-to-one meetings with five leading Thai companies to facilitate trade opportunities between both nations.
In 2023, Malaysia's total trade with Thailand stood at RM113.37 billion and registered a trade surplus of RM4.46 billion.
Within Asean, Malaysia is Thailand's largest trading partner, largest export destination, and largest source of imports.
Major exports to Thailand comprised electrical and electronic (E&E) products, crude petroleum, chemicals and chemical products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and manufactures of metal.
The ministry also shared with the companies some plans on Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean in 2025, aimed at promoting regional economic cooperation by facilitating smoother trade and investment flows to enhance regional growth.
Tengku Zafrul encouraged the Thai industry players to be involved in private sector-led events surrounding official Asean meetings next year.
"As Malaysia gears up to be the chair of Asean in 2025, we need to highlight the crucial need for both the public and private sectors to work together in advancing regional integration and form strategic collaborations, particularly in addressing the megatrends impacting the region, including geopolitics, regional security, digitalisation and climate change."
At the official level, Tengku Zafrul and senior officials from the ministry, Mida and Matrade had earlier met officials from Thailand's Ministry of Commerce for the Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting in Malaysia on July 4.
During the JTC, both countries had agreed to establish a task force related to trade and investment to focus on, among others, trade facilitation, cross-border connectivity and cooperation in various fields including the halal sector to achieve the trade target of US$30 billion by 2027.