KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia should consider Turkey as its gateway to new lucrative export markets, says former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
At the same time, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia should consider reducing its dependency on the US and European Union (EU) export markets as economic crisis at home had affected both the US and EU’s purchasing power.
“What is happening anywhere in the world will affect Malaysia as we are connected unless Malaysia works hard to find new markets because we cannot rely on them (the US and EU) any more.
“They don’t have money to buy what we produce so we have to find new markets.
“Not completely of course.
“The 20-per cent trade with the US is not going to be reduced to zero but certainly you have to have the substitute,” he told reporters after delivering his keynote address at the 8th Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum 2011 here yesterday.
He was asked to elaborate further on his earlier remarks that it was unlikely that the EU and US would recover very soon, thus affecting Malaysia as a trading partner.
Nonetheless, Dr Mahathir lauded the great deal of work done on the Chinese market.
“Our trade with China has increased tremendously. I believe that Turkey and the surrounding region can provide a good market but we are not good enough to improve business with Turkey.” According to him, Turkey is in the middle of a region that links West Asia, East Europe and the Arab countries.
“We should be there.
“I was there last week and I was surprised that there was very little Malaysian participation.” — Bernama