KUALA LUMPUR: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) has urged Malaysian businesses, Chinese businessmen included, to explore business opportunities and to boost bilateral trade in Russia.
While noting that in recent years, the annual bilateral trade volume between Malaysia and Russia has reached USD 3 billion, its President, Tan Sri T.C Goh believed there are still many sectors in Russia with huge potential that are untapped.
“Bilateral trade between Malaysia and Russia covers such items like crude oil, rubber products, petroleum products, minerals, manufacturing, aviation, military equipment and arms, machinery etc, and the total trade volume has grown from USD 2.19 billion in 2016 to USD 2.5 billion in 2019, which indicated there’s vast trade potential in various sectors, between the two nations,” he said.
He said this while speaking at the dialogue held in conjunction with the courtesy call by Stanislav Krans, the Deputy Head of Mission, for the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Malaysia, at Wisma Huazong here, on Thursday. Krans was accompanied by his colleagues, Counselor Alexander Zimin and Second Secretary VadimZamkovyy. Also in attendance were, Huazong Deputy President, Dato’ Lim Kah Chuan, its Vice President, Wong Keng Tong , Vice Treasurer-general Dato’ Ng Chin Heng, Central Committee members Dato’ Lee Teck Hua * Dato Dr Hoo Ch’ng Pow, and Vice President of Negeri Sembilan Chinese Assembly Hall, Oh kian kiong。*, among others.
Goh who is also President of The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) went on to note that diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Russia were established via signing of trade treaty, during the “Soviet Union” era in 1967. Subsequently, the introduction of direct flights and signing of a new Trade Treaty between Malaysia and Russia, in 2012 and 2016, further boosted bilateral trade between the two countries.
“All these years, Russia has been a key trading partner of Malaysia, ranking among the top 30, besides being Malaysia’s biggest trading partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), for both import and export,” he pointed out.
Trade aside, Russia is also among the favourite nations for Malaysian students to further their studies, especially in medical education. Over the years, Russia’s affordable yet high-quality medical education has produced many outstanding physicians and specialists from Malaysia.
“Besides this, Russia is also renowned for its music and arts, theatre and movie courses, which till this day continue to attract a huge number of overseas students, Malaysian students included, each year,” he added
Goh continued that in recent years, bilateral relations between the two nations were further boosted, when the two former Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed met and had discussions with Russian President, Vladimir Putin during various international events. The more recent one was in 2019, when Dr Mahathir conducted an official visit to Russia, where an historical bilateral talk was conducted between Dr Mahathir and President Vladimir Putin.
Prior to that, His Excellency President Vladimir Putin also made two historical visits to Kuala Lumpur in 2003. This obviously indicated the well-established and cordial bilateral relations between Malaysia and Russia.
Goh was convinced that diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Russia will continue to grow from strength to strength. He also hoped that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin could conduct a historical meeting in the near future, to further boost bilateral relations, and to chart new bilateral directions for Malaysia and Russia.
Meanwhile, in his speech, Krans too hoped the two countries could further boost bilateral trade besides conducting regular exchanges and cooperation in culture and arts.
Noting that Russia currently has an estimated Muslim population of 20 million, Krans disclosed that the Government of Russia plans to organize a Russian Muslim cultural exhibition in Malaysia, later this year.
As for the aspect of cultural exchange between Russia and Malaysia, he assured that the Russian government is ever-ready to deploy some of its top notch national ballet troupes to perform for the Malaysian audience, provided there’s a proper arrangement for such an event to take place.
Krans further noted that Russia has many professionals who are well-versed in English and Chinese languages, and the Russian Embassy in Malaysia is currently studying the feasibility of establishing Russian language education in selected schools in Malaysia.
He acknowledged that all these while, the bilateral relations between Malaysia and Russia were mainly official (government to government) in nature, hence a vast majority of Malaysians finds Russia unfamiliar. The Russian Embassy in Malaysia thus hoped bilateral relations and bilateral trade between the people of the two countries will be boosted, after this.
He also reckoned that being the highest leading Chinese organization in Malaysia, Huazong is most suited to play a significant role, in this regard.-pr/BNN
