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MALAYSIA-MIDDLE EAST TIES:
Malaysia-Middle East Ties Reach New Heights
Malaysia has emerged as a favoured business partner and a popular tourist destination among the countries of the Middle East...
By Naved Hasan in Dubai
Malaysian business and tourism interests are indeed flourishing in the Middle East. On the tourism front, Malaysia has emerged as one of the top tourist destinations for outbound travel in many Middle East countries with as many as 250,000 visitors from the Middle East flocking to popular tourist destinations in Malaysia during the holiday season between June and September every year. During this period, almost all major tourist destinations in Malaysia are packed with visitors from the Middle East. Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Terenganu, are some of the favourite destinations for travellers from the Middle East.
The government of Malaysia has launched an aggressive campaign to market its tourism interests in the Middle East. As part of this campaign, the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board has been organising regular familiarisation trips for journalists and travel agents from the Middle East. In addition, Malaysia has been actively promoting its tourism industry at major trade fairs and exhibitions in the Middle East like the Arabian Travel Market.
On the business front, Malaysia has also emerged among the top suppliers of manufactured goods to the Middle East. A long tradition of trading successfully with countries across the globe has positioned Malaysia as a leading trading nation in the Asia Pacific region. The Malaysian government is making concerted efforts to devise innovative ways to enhance bi-lateral trade with Middle East countries. These efforts are bearing fruit and Malaysia is already counted among the world's top 20 trading nations. The country's status as a viable source for manufactured goods and high quality consumer and capital goods like electrical and electronic products.
An increasing number of visitors from the Middle East are also discovering the excellent healthcare facilities available at more than 49 private medical centres in Malaysia. Tour operators are now offering health tourism packages to Malaysia offering medical screening and other premium medical treatments ar reasonable prices for Middle East visitors to Malaysia.
Another sector that has been attracting special attention for Middle East is the excellent opportunities of higher education available in Malaysia. Over 35,000 foreign students from as many as 100 different countries are currently studying in Malaysia at one of the many premier internationally-recognised education institutions in Malaysia. Studying in Malaysia is highly competitive in terms of cost since students can undergo twinning programmes with foreign universities from the UK, USA and Australia or choose to complete their education in Malaysia itself.
Middle Eastern tourists, especially Muslim holidaymakers, feel very much at home in Malaysia because of its Islamic culture and traditions. Warm, hospitable people, a large number of halal restaurants, hassle-free visa policies and a host of tourist attractions, have all added to make Malaysia the fourth most popular tourist destination for travellers from the Middle East.
Not surprisingly then, Malaysia has been witnessing a surge in tourists from the Middle East countries in recent years. As the international tourist traffic patterns undergo a major restructuring in the aftermath of September 11, Malaysia has emerged as one of the most sought after holiday destinations for the Middle East travellers. Hotel owners in Malaysia have spread out the red carpet to make these travellers more comfortable by providing prayer rugs and copies of the Holy Quran in each room, designing rooms with arrow-shaped stickers pointing to the Holy Mecca, following Islamic codes of food and providing menus in Arabic language.
Industry analysts expect the number of Middle Eastern tourists to top 500,000 this year. To cope with this increase, many airlines have increased the frequency of their flights from the region.
Besides tourism, Malaysia and the Middle East share trade relations that go back several centuries making it easy for them to become partners in progress. Leaders from the two regions have been striving to explore new avenues of co-operation. Over the years, several memoranda of understanding (MOUs) have been signed, many deals struck and numerous trading opportunities seized. As a result of these ongoing efforts, bi-lateral trade between Malaysia and the Middle East has been registering unprecedented growth in recent years. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have emerged as Malaysia’s largest trading partners in the Middle East.
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| Malaysia has been exchanging high-level delgations with Middle East countries |
Malaysia’s exports to the UAE have registered a phenomenal growth in recent times and imports have also increased substantially from US$163.94 million in 2001 to US$250 million in 2005. Total imports from the UAE amounted to approximately US$400 million, compared with US$115.08 million in 1999, which was largely attributed to the increase in imports of crude petroleum. Crude petroleum, gold, aluminum and aluminum products constituted alsmost 70 per cent of the total UAE exports to Malaysia in 2005.
Bi-lateral trade has received a further boost as more and more traders in the Middle East begin to source their import requirements from Malaysia either for the local market or for re-export. Malaysia offers a wide range of quality and competitively-priced products, including jewellery, palm oil based products, electrical and electronic consumer products, textile and apparel, halal food products, wood-based products, rubber-based products, building materials, furniture, household products and automobile components – to name a few.
In an effort to capitalise on the growing synergy between Malaysia and the Middle East countries, the government of Malaysia established the Malaysia Trade Centre in Dubai (MTC) - an initiative of Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE). The main objective for setting up MTC, which marked a new chapter in the growing trade relations, is to provide a centre to showcase Malaysian products and services available for export to the UAE and other Gulf markets. MTC also serves as the venue for regular trade events involving Malaysian products and operates as a focal point for business people in the GCC to obtain trade and investment information on Malaysia.
MTC not only offers trade-matching services, including organising business meetings for foreign buyers with Malaysian exporters but also acts as a catalyst to further increase and expand the range of products and services traded between Malaysia and the Middle East countries. Over the years, MTC has successfully consolidated UAE's position as an important destination for Malaysian trade and investment missions. The increasing importance of UAE, particularly Dubai, is evident from the continuous flow of visits by high-level Malaysian government officials and business delegations.
MATRADE has successfully embarked on a series of trade promotion programmes in the UAE and neighbouring countries. MATRADE participates in all major trade fairs and exhibitions held in the Middle East. It is assists other Malaysian government agencies/councils in promoting other industries such as palm oil, rubber-based products, construction and other services. MATRADE has already chalked up a number of promotion programmes in the years to come.
The results of all these efforts are there to see. Presently, there are more than 20 companies with Malaysian interests operating in the UAE. Working with these companies, that are either 100 per cent owned or on joint venture basis with UAE nationals and are involved in key business sectors such as the oil industry, hotel business, manufacturing, trading, water treatment and information technology, have helped people in the UAE get an idea of the expertise, professionalism and state-of-the-art operations of similar companies in Malaysia. Together with the efforts of MTC and MATRADE, Middle Eastern investors now have a fairly good understanding of the great business potential that Malaysia holds out for them and vice versa.
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| A delegation from the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) during their promotional trip to the Gulf countries |
Analysts conclude that these giant strides in strengthening trade and business relations between the two countries has been made possible because there is great synergy between Malaysia and the UAE. They are both countries on the move, ready to take on the challenges of the 21st century and determined to excel in whatever they do.
With so much happening between the Middle East and Malaysia, the future is full of promise and potential. Our publication is a sincere and serious endeavour to act as a catalyst for improved relations between Malaysia and the Middle East by enabling direct contacts between the communities of the two regions. To further increase the reach and influence of our publication, we have launched a dedicated Internet edition of the publication. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions on how to make this publication even better...
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