Pakistan's exports to Malaysia up by 155 percent

[Hyde]

Pakistan's exports to Malaysia up by 155 percent​

KUALA LUMPUR (June 25 2010): Pakistan's exports to Malaysia have witnessed an upsurge of 155 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, with bilateral trade registering a growth of 18.3 percent. In monitory terms, the total exports touched to RM 251.19 million compared to RM 98.5 million in the first quarter of the year 2009, the Acting High Commissioner for Pakistan Dr Imtiaz A Kazi told a press conference here.

The Acting High Commissioner said the unprecedented increase in bilateral trade clearly reflects growing business and trade ties between the two countries and was the outcome of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between the two countries in November 2007.

He said the trade potential between Pakistan and Malaysia was far more than the existing volume and urged the traders and businessmen of both the countries to take full advantage of reduced duties and tariffs for a multifold increase.

Dr Kazi said most of the increase in Pakistan's export related to Halal sector. Rice registered an unprecedented increase of 468.3 percent with an export of RM 155.5 million compared to RM 27.36 million. Potato registered an increase of 18.98 percent with an export of RM 9.6 million compared to RM 8.1 million, onion an enormous increase of 12000 percent with export of RM 12.5 million compared to RM 0.01 million of the same period of last year.

Maize made a debut entry with export of RM 5.8 million while other sectors like cotton yarn saw robust growth of 349.009 percent with export of RM 11.59 million compared to RM 3.32 million during the same period last year. The press conference was also addressed by Honorary Investment Counsellor for Pakistan in Malaysia, Dato Salim bin Fateh Din, Razzak Hashim Paracha, Chairman, Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati), Shahaab Sharrif, partner of Utelus of Pakistan and Mohammad Rashid Hashmi, Chief Executive of Mohammad Hashim Tajir Surma.

He said Malaysian exports to Pakistan also registered significant growth in the same period ie 13.8 percent with palm oil and natural rubber showing increase of 18.2 percent and 60.7 percent respectively. In monitory, total bilateral trade registered 18.3 percent increase with an overall trade of RM 1.930 billion compare to last year's trade of RM 1.612 billion in the first quarter'.

The Palm Oil exports to Pakistan showed substantial increase of 28.08 percent with export of RM 1.34 billion compared to RM 1.04 billion in 2009. The insecticide sector increased 8.34 percent with export of RM 5.92 million compared to RM 5.47 in 2009. Natural rubber registered an increase of 60.7 percent with export of RM 16.35 million compared to 10.17 million in 2009.

The Honorary Investment Counsellor of Pakistan in Malaysia Dato Salim bin Fateh Din, who is also the Chairman of Pro-term Committee of the Malaysian Chapter of Joint Business Council (JBC) announced the composition of Malaysian Chapter of Joint Business Council had been finalised and will be formally announced shortly.

Chairman, Kati said the Pakistani traders and investors have now shifted focus from USA and Europe to exploring the markets of South East Asia. He said that there exited an enormous potential in bilateral trade between Pakistan and Malaysia in areas such pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and Halal sectors which needed to explored further.

Shahab Sharif of Utelus said Malaysian traders were keen to import Pakistan's onion, potato, apricot, mangoes and rock salt in raw form and as well as in value-added form.

He said that he had already received order of 250 containers per month from Carrefour, one of the largest hyper markets of Malaysia and 20 containers of potato per week from another buyer besides receiving orders in bulk for import of Pakistani apricot, mango, and rock salt.

The Chief Executive of Mohammad Hashim Tajir Surma Mohammad Rashid Hashim said that Pakistan was reasonably strong in halal cosmetic and dietary products and Malaysia could be one of the major markets for their export. Later the media visited the Pakistani stalls and were briefed on the products exhibited in Pakistan pavilion. The 7th annual edition of MIHAS, the premier Halal Showcase of Malaysia was officially inaugurated on 23rd June and will continue till 27th of this month.

 

[Sparten80]

This is good news, Pakistani products have the potential to reach even further markets with more aggresive marketing and arrangements with other countries. Increasing exports help create more jobs as well as reduce our trade deficit and allow us to fund more projects within our country. This increase in exports to Malaysia is the result of studies done on both economies and succesful analysis by our export promotion bureau to improve our export standing with that country. We should apply this technique to other countries as well as expand our search by looking at markets in other existing as well as untapped markets.

Our potential is so much more, and we definately need to be more pro-active in this endeavour.

 

[Hyde]

Pakistan's exports to South Korea register tremendous growth​

KARACHI (June 26 2010): Pakistan's export to South Korea, 80 percent of which is raw material, has recorded tremendous growth during January to March 2010 as compared to same period last year. The export of raw material like Naphtha, Unrefined Copper, Indentured Ethyl Alcohol and Cotton yarn from Pakistan was increased many folds, as Korean overall import was showing signs of improvement having increased 37.3 percent for the three months after the global economic recession, a recently issued report of Pakistani commercial counsellor in Seoul said.

According to the report though there were no imports into Korea during January to March 2009 but the import of the same item from Pakistan during the same period this year was worth $33.972 million. It said Naphtha as a raw material used for many petrochemicals and plastics, ranked the first place amongst the imported items from Pakistan for the year 2009. The product dependency of Pakistan on naphtha is currently 43.23 percent of its total export volume to Korea.

The report said that Pakistan's export of leather prepared (bovine) has shown remarkable increase rate by 238.80 percent in the period January to March 2010, compared to same period of 2009. Also leather prepared (other) has increased by 22.0 percent in the same period, year-on-year.

The total import of cotton yarn to Korea from world-wide sources increased by 90.4 percent in the period January to March 2010, compared to the same period of 2009, also the same thing from Pakistan increased by 22.25 percent and Pakistan ranked as the 3rd largest exporter of this product to Korea, it added.

Pakistan's export of cotton fabric (under 200g/m2) to Korea, it said, has been continuously increasing by remarkable amounts every month and it increased by 170.40 percent during 2009, while total import from world-wide has decreased by 8.4 percent. Also, total import of cotton fabric (over 200g/m2) to Korea has increased by 71.7 percent for the period January to March 2010, while the same from Pakistan increased by 114.7 percent compared to the same period of 2009. Pakistan ranked at second number in each of these categories, respectively.

Since the first export of indentured ethyl alcohol from Pakistan to Korea in March 2007, the same has been one of our leading export items to Korea. However, so far this year $0.413 million worth has been imported, which is a decrease of 87.2 percent compared to the same period of 2009, ranking Pakistan as the largest exporter of this product to Korea.

"While export of unrefined copper from Pakistan to Korea was worth $12.793 million during January to March in 2009, ranking Pakistan as the 2nd biggest exporter of this product to Korea, it has not been imported in January to March 2010. Since import of unrefined copper to Korea is through international trading companies with LME unit price, just like Naphtha, its high position in exports is not certain", it added.

According to the report total import of frozen fish to Korea was gradually increasing from November 2009, but the import from Pakistan has decreased by 15.5 percent in the period January to March 2010 compared to the same period last year. However, the import of Crustaceans from Pakistan has increased by 45.8 percent compared to the period January to March 2009.

For the period January to March 2010, Pakistan's traditional exports such as cotton fabric over 200 g/m (114.7 percent up), leather prepared (238.8 percent up) have performed exceptionally better than the same period last year. However, exports of raw material like unrefined copper, indentured ethyl alcohol (87.2 percent down) have substantially decreased. Apart from local variables, this could be due to demand drying up last year globally for raw material due to the global economic crisis.