Take advantage of M’sia-South Korea ties for business expansion

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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian businesses must take advantage of the country’s close ties with South Korea to expand their business there and ride on South Korea’s technological advancement.

Second International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said technology was evolving very quickly and working together with South Korea would favour Malaysia in terms technology transfer.

“South Korea is a very high-technology country and they are among the top 10 in the robotics industry.

“Malaysia cannot achieve this overnight, so we can start by working with them in areas such as sharing the technology and production chain,” he told a press conference after officiating the International Sourcing Programme (INSP) yesterday.

The business matching programme between 215 local and 64 South Korean businesses were organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and Korea Importers Association (KOIMA).

The two countries have been enjoying over 60 years of close diplomatic relations whereby in 2015, South Korea was ranked Malaysia’s eight largest trading partner with total trade amounting to RM56.28 billion.

KOIMA Chairman Myoung-Jin Shin said this was the second INSP organised in collaboration with MATRADE whereby the firsts round, held in 2010, involved only 12 KOIMA member companies.

“This time around, we have 157 representatives from 64 companies interested to meet Malaysian companies.

“We hope this business meeting will result in business transactions in the years to come,” he added.

KOIMA currently has over 8,500 members from various sectors, covering about 85 per cent of South Korea’s import. — Bernama