Malaysian, Saudi firms sign seven MOUs worth RM9.74 bln

Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, said the signing of the MOUs signalled growing interests from both countries to leverage on mutual strengths in achieving business goals.

These MOU would complement the government-to-government MOU that were signed with the Saudi State Minister Dr Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf on Monday, he said.

"As Saudi Arabia is moving away from its reliance on oil revenue, we would like to encourage Saudi investors to explore the business potentials in new growth areas particularly advanced technology products," he said.

Mustapa said this in his welcoming speech at the Malaysia-Saudi Arabia Business Forum held in conjunction with the State Visit of King Salman Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia here today.

Among the local companies that signed the MOUs were Halal Industry Development Corp, Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, Dewina Holdings Sdn Bhd, Majlis Amanah Rakyat and Silvertech Global Sdn Bhd.

Also present were Saudi Arabis's Governor of Small and Medium Enterprise Authority Dr Ghassan Ahmed Al-Sulaiman, Chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers Dr Hamdan Abdullah Alssomaireen and President of National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia Datuk Ter Leong Lap.

Mustapa invited Saudi multinational corporations (MNCs) to follow in the footsteps of other MNCs to take advantage of Malaysia's Principal Hub scheme.

This would enable the kingdom's MNCs to use Malaysia as a base to boost their key strategic value-adding functions towards becoming more cost-efficient, he said.

The one-day forum is jointly held by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp and Malaysian Investment Development Authority.

The forum aims to promote and highlight business and investment opportunities in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as well as provide a platform to discuss and exchange views on issues related to trade and investments and ways to enhance bilateral economic ties.

In other development, Mustapa said, Malaysia has a strong presence in Saudi Arabia's construction sector with 19 contracts worth RM18.5 billion awarded to Malaysian companies to-date.

Among them were Shuaibah Independent Water and Power generation Plant and desalination plant which is the first IWPP in Saudi Arabia; operation and maintenance of the Arafah-Mina Metro system by Prasarana; and, development of Jamrah Complex in Mina by Alloy MTD.

Malaysia's total trade with Saudi Arabia increased by 27.8 per cent to RM14 billion (US$3.4 billion) in 2016, from RM11 billion (US$2.8 billion) in 2015.