Posted on 19 Feb 2015
With its economy poised to resume strength, Japan is positive that its
bilateral trade with Malaysia will continue to flourish this year.
Japan's Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Makio Miyagawa said Japan has been
consistently one of Malaysia's key trading partners and investors, apart
from having strong bilateral ties with Malaysia.
He said in 2014, Japan was one of Malaysia's three largest trading
partners and the biggest investor in Malaysia, particularly in high
technology and modern services.
Japan's economic recovery is expected to increase its imports of mineral
fuel, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) while its exports of steel
and iron products for the production of consumer goods and automobile
parts are also expected to rise, he said in an email to Bernama.
Miyagawa said Malaysia's imports from Japan in 2014 dropped slightly
while its exports to Japan increased by RM3.5 billion in 2014.
Figures from The Department of Statistics Malaysia show that trade
between the two countries in 2014 were in favour of Malaysia, with
exports to Japan worth RM82.7 billion against imports (from Japan)
valued at RM54.7 billion.
Miyagawa said Japan's statistics showed that Malaysia expanded its
exports of mineral fuel such as crude oil and LNG and electrical and
electronic goods, while its other major items were wood and chemical
products.
He said half of Malaysia's export items to Japan in 2013 was LNG, making Malaysia the third largest LNG exporter to Japan.
On another note, he said as Malaysia has shown tremendous economic
growth through the Look East Policy adopted since 1982, it could now
transfer the knowledge to other countries in the region.
"It could be termed the 'Look Malaysia Policy.' Japan could certainly
support this move by, for instance, establishing Japanese universities
in Malaysia for students from Asean countries," he said.
Commending on the success of the Look East Policy, he said it has
produced many prominent Malaysians capable of developing science and
technology capacity as well as enhancing productivity and management
systems.
"They in turn become a catalyst drawing a significant participation of Japanese companies (in Malaysia)," he added.
