Malaysia is keen on importing potatoes and mangoes from West Bengal.
In an interactive session organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry(BNCCI), Dato' Tan Seng Sung, Malaysian High Commissioner in India, said, "We met with the Chief Minister today for 45 minutes where we spoke of possibly importing potatoes and mangoes from Bengal and also look at other possible areas of cooperation."
Possible areas of cooperation included manufacturing and construction and Information Technology (IT).
The Malaysian delegation comprising the High Commissioner, Subhash Bose Pillai, Minister Counsellor (economic affairs) and trade commissioner, Zainuddin A Jalil, asked the government to press for introduction of direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Kolkata.
Direct flights existed from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
The Malaysian delegation met the state tourism minister and tourism secretary of West Bengal yesterday and discussed resuming air connectivity between West Bengal and Malaysia to boost tourism between Malaysia and Bengal.
Also Read
The West Bengal government had to work in this and offer viable options, they added.
Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) was initially operating flights between Bengal and Malaysia but withdrew them as required volume was missing.
Another possible area of cooperation could be in eco-tourism.
Malaysia and West Bengal tourism sectors could extend cooperation to boost tourism, said the Malaysian High Commissioner.
He invited investments from West Bengal companies and urged them to set up regional offices and explore possible areas of trade.
Negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for goods with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore had been completed and talks for a possible FTA on trade in services and investment would begin soon, he told the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Sung said, "Negotiations on Free Trade Agreement on trade in services and investment will be placed, for which a meeting will be held in December this year. We will try to wind it up by end of 2009."
This would lead to a reduction of tariffs.
ASEAN has already concluded FTAs with China, Korea and Japan.
The third round of negotiaton of the India-Malaysia comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) would be held from October 13 in Kuala Lumpur to secure an agreement on areas including tariffs, customs procedures, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, investment and trade in services.
Bilateral trade between India and Malysia touched $4.09 billion between January to May, 2008 as compared to $2.94 billion in the same period of 2007.
Malaysia's exports to India were $2.74 billion and imports from India were $1.36 billion in the first five months of 2008.
The two countries identified petroleum and gas, processed food, animal feed, petrochemical, oleo chemical and medicine as potential sectors for intra-industry trade.
Healthcare, education, IT and telecommunications, financial tourism, construction and engineering were other areas of collaboration.
Major areas of investment in Malaysia in India were construction, power generation, telecommunication and logistics sectors.