COLOMBIA is seeking Malaysia’s aid to nurture a strong palm oil industryin the Latin American nation as it has large agricultural land for cashcrop cultivation.A high-level discussion is expected to be initiated soon when ColombianForeign Minister Carolina Barco meets Primary Industries Minister DatukSeri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.Colombian Ambassador to Malaysia Fernando Marin Valencia told BusinessTimes that Barco plans to meet Dr Lim during the 13th Non-Aligned Movement(NAM) Summit in Kuala Lumpur.“Malaysia has a lot of expertise, especially in palm oil and naturalrubber.“We are interested in establishing an agreement with Malaysia to get KualaLumpur’s technical support in this area as well as getting Malaysianplantation companies to invest in Colombia,” he said in a recent interviewin Kuala Lumpur.Barco will lead the Colombian delegation to the summit which kicks offwith senior officials meeting today Valencia said he is currently talkingto a few Malaysian plantations companies to invest in palm oil sector inColombia.“Colombia is suitable for palm oil plantations as the country has the sameweather conditions as Malaysia. “We also have bigger areas of land for thecultivation of commercial crops like oil palm and rubber,” he said.He noted that Malaysia, with only about 4 million ha of oil palmplantation, produces more than 55 per cent of world’s palm oil supply.He said the export potential for Malaysian companies is very promising ifthey invest in oil palm plantations in Colombia as palm oil from Colombiacan be exported to the US and Europe.“Malaysia and Colombia can establish a joint venture to plant oil palm inColombia and explore the markets in the US and Europe as Colombia iscloser to the US and not far from Europe,” he said.Malaysian investment in the Colombia’s oil palm sector will be furtherjustified as the expanding economies of China and India will result ingreater demand for palm oil.He said as the combined population of China and India represents 40 percent of the world’s population, Malaysian companies would benefit greatlyif they can supply more palm oil to these countries in the future.Colombia’s export to Malaysia is about US$12 billion to US$13 billion(US$1 = RM3.80), while Malaysia’s export stood at US$100 billion.Currently, Colombia’s global exports are petroleum, coffee, coal, bananasand flowers like roses and orchids.