MADINAH: Malaysia’s total trade with Saudi Arabia has been on the rise, and for January to June period this year it recorded an increase of 20 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Malaysian Consul General to Saudi Arabia Mohd Khalid Abbasi Abdul Razak said Malaysia’s total trade with Saudi Arabia for the period amounted to US$2.01 billion.
Meanwhile, bilateral trade between Malaysia and the Kingdom had increased by more than three fold at the end of last year to US$3.07 billion from US$955.1 million in 2000.
He said this in a statement issued here yesterday in conjunction with Malaysia’s 57th Independence Day.
“The volume of Malaysian exports to the Kingdom was US$1.086 billion (4.07 billion Saudi Riyal) in 2013.
“The exports included electrical and electronic products, metal industries, machinery, spare parts, chemical and wood products,” he said.
Mohd Khalid said Malaysia’s major imports from the Kingdom included crude oil, refined oil and chemical products.
Saudi Arabia is Malaysia’s 19th biggest commercial trade partner and the 16th biggest importer country.
“While we are glad the trade volume between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia has improved significantly within a short span of time, we further believe that the trade relations between both countries could be further expanded and diversified through partnership between the public and private sectors,” he said.
On tourism, he said Saudi Arabia was an important market in West Asia as Malaysia received more than 95,000 Saudi Arabian visitors last year to experience ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’.
Some of them came for health tourism, he added.
Mohd Khalid hoped that more Saudi Arabian tourists would come to Malaysia not only for tourism and health tourism but also to take up the offers under the Malaysia Second Home programme in a long stay social visit pass with multiply entry visa.
“I also would like to encourage more students from Saudi Arabia to pursue their studies in Malaysia as we offer excellent standard of education in many different fields at a fraction of costs,” he added.
He also said that Malaysia’s bilateral relation with Saudi Arabia has continued to be warm and friendly with both countries enjoying unprecedented levels of win-win cooperation in all fields. — Bernama