PAKISTAN has pledged to import at least 1 million tonnes of Malaysian palmoil a year.

Its High Commission commercial counsellor Athar Jamal Abro said Pakistanhad been maintaining its import of palm oil at one million tonnes in thepast three years.

"We have been importing the commodity at the same level every year but thevalue of such imports have shown a slight decrease because of the sluggishprice of the commodity worldwide of late," he told Business Times.

Athar said last year, Pakistan had imported about 1.102 million tonnes ofpalm oil from Malaysia, valued at RM1.2 billion.

In the first five months of this year alone, he said, the republic hadimported 465,200 tonnes of the commodity valued at RM372 million.

Pakistan imported 1.020 million tonnes of palm oil, valued at RM2.5billion in 1998, and this was increased to 1.021 milion valued at RM1.7billion the following year.

Based on this statistics, Athar said Pakistan will continue to import morethan one million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia although the price ofthe commodity has improved.

In fact, he said palm oil is still the leading import, accounting forabout 80 per cent of Pakistan's imports from Malaysia.

"Malaysia, through the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is aggressivelypromoting the commodity in Pakistan.

They (MPOB) have set a centre in Pakistan to promote palm oilaggressively," he said.

In terms of bilateral trade between Malaysia and Pakistan, Athar said thetrend has been very encouraging, showing an increase from year to year,with trade balance in favour of Malaysia.

In the last three years, he said Pakistan has been trying to match withMalaysia's exports to Pakistan, and it had somehow achieved this.

For instance, he said Pakistan's export to Malaysia stood at US$53.22million (US$1 = RM3.80) last year, against US$47 million the previous yearand US$30.22 million in 1998.

On the converse, he said Malaysia's exports to Pakistan were US$393.59million last year, against US$522.47 million and US$779.39 million in 2000and 1999 respectively.

"If the trend continues, we expect Pakistan's exports to Malaysia toincrease to US$60 million by the end of this year," he said.

Malaysia's main imports from Pakistan include rice, textile, leather,cotton fabrics and woven man-made textile materials, while Pakistan'simports from Malaysia include palm oil, electronic goods, rubber andrubber-products, wood and wood-products, and crude oil.

Athar noted that there is already a wide acceptance among Malaysianstowards Pakistan's oranges and mangoes following its aggressive promotionof the fruits in Malaysia.

"Three highly sophisticated and successful exhibitions of oranges andmangoes were held in several states this year," he said, adding that as aresult of this mango exports to Malaysia had doubled.

He also said the Pakistan High Commission plans to organise a seminar onPakistan's trade and investment opportunities in November

07 September 2001Business Times