KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia plans to establish morenetworking in Jordan, which imports large amount of oils and fats tosatisfy its domestic demand, so that palm oil would not lose out to othercompeting oils, Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaiksaid."We want to meet more people who are interested to venture into edible oilbusiness. Since Palm oil can go into a myriad range of products, I am surethe business community here would not want to lose out on the tremendousbusiness opportunities that palm oil can offer," he said.Dr Lim said this at the Malaysia-Jordan Business Dialogue under theMalaysian Palm Oil Economic and Technical Mission to Jordan. The text ofhis speech was released here Thursday.He said that Jordan produces 25,000 tonnes of olive oil a year but itsconsumption of oils and fats averaged 125,000 tonnes a year.This means that Jordan has to depend largely on imports to satisfy herdomestic consumption, in addition to being a gateway for re-exports tonearby countries, Dr Lim said.Jordan also exports oils and fats and re-exports large quantities of palmoil to neighbouring countries, including Iraq, in processed form, likevegetable ghee, under the United Nations Oil for Food programme.Jordan imported some 134,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia last year.Last year, Malaysia produced 11.8 million tonnes of palm oil and exportedmore than 10.5 million tonnes, which makes it once again the world'slargest producer and exporter of palm oil.Meanwhile, on a bilateral trade basis, Dr Lim said that total bilateraltrade between Malaysia and Jordan last year was very small.It was valued at RM358.34 million (US$94.3 million), accounting for 0.5percent of Malaysia's total global trade in that year, he said.As such Dr Lim said that Malaysia and Jordan should work together tofurther develop bilateral trade and economic ties and that the palm oiltrade is one field that the two countries could work together to enhancebilateral trade."Perhaps what is needed is more regular interaction between thebusinessmen of our two countries so as to work out feasible businesspropositions for our mutual benefits," he said.-- BERNAMA