MY and SG strengthen bilateral trade with new platform

Malaysia and Singapore have established a new platform to boost bilateral trade and investments between both countries. The Annual Ministerial Dialogue (AMD) aims to allow neighboring countries to cooperate on digital and green economy as well as strengthen bilateral ties between both ministries, the Malaysian ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) and Singaporean ministry for Trade and Industry (MTI).

During the inaugural AMD, the ministers, Minister Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz of Malaysia and Gan Yim Kong of Singapore, reviewed the progress of two frameworks on cooperation in the Digital Economy and Green Economy, which had been signed between the two governments during Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Singapore on 30 January 2023. 

“Under the framework on cooperation in the Digital Economy, the ministers announced a new taskforce to explore the promotion of cross-border business trade, leveraging the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and Singapore’s Business sans Borders initiative,” Minister Zafrul said.

He went on to add that the task force, that will be established to improve digital trade, will involve MITI in cooperation with MARTRADE, MTI, Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

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Under the framework on cooperation in the Green Economy, the ministers welcomed the collaborative effort between MATRADE and Enterprise Singapore in a Capacity Development Programme for exporters, aimed at supporting exporters’ sustainability transition.

"As part of the programme, there will be a series of engagements between Singapore and Malaysia enterprises to share experiences and solutions in sustainability. The first session will focus on sustainability reporting frameworks and green financing, scheduled to be launched in July 2023," he added. 

With intricately connected economies and strong people-to-people ties, both countries are each other’s primary trading partners. This can be seen in the revenue grossed from bilateral trade. According to MITI, bilateral trade between both countries reached US$83.53 billion in 2022, which reflected a significant growth of 37.6% from the previous year.

Moreover, Singapore also stands to be one of Malaysia’s primary sources of foreign direct investment, contributing 8.3% to Malaysia’s total FDI in 2022.

Earlier this year, MITI secured a RM24 billion investment from the Republic of Korea through the Trade and Investment Mission. Led by MITI Minister Zafrul, a key feature of the mission was the Venture Capital (VC) Investors Roundtable which was chaired by him and participated by more than 20 Korean VC investors, who indicated interests to locate their robotics and AI-based businesses in Malaysia.

There were exchanges of four memorandum of understanding (MOUs) which saw a few Korean VCs’ displayed their commitment to invest up to US$400 million in Malaysia.

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