KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysia hopes that India's move toraise import tariff by five percent on refined palm oil will be atemporary measure, says Minister of Plantation Enterprises and CommoditiesDatuk Peter Chin Fah Kui.

India has raised its import tariff on refined palm oil to 75 percent from70 percent while for crude palm oil (CPO), the tariff has remained at 65percent.

Chin said he planned to have a dialogue with Indian Minister of Commerce,among others, to bring up the issue.

Speaking at a press conference held in conjunction with his 100 days inoffice Wednesday, Chin said Malaysian companies could have better presencein India especially in the area of palm oil refining.

India consumes over 10 percent of Malaysian annual export of palm oil of12 million tonnes.

On his ministry, he said he would like to see higher efficiency andproductivity in the plantation industry through improved skills andmanagement and through the usage of machinery and better seeds and betterquality trees.

He said there must also be some form of training institutions so thatMalaysia would have a larger number of skilled managers and supervisors.

He also hoped to see more value-adding through research and development,greater efforts towards improving product quality, strengthening ofexisting markets and penetration of new markets.

In addition, he said Malaysia should go into new areas of growth such asbiomass.

"For example, we can go into alternative fuel and oil palm could actuallybe converted to diesel," he said.

Another area that Malaysia could promote, Chin said, was integratedfarming instead of the current monocrop farming.

"Oil palm plantations too should be mixed with other crops or with animalfarming," he said.

-- BERNAMA