20/06/2011 (Bernama) - Argentina may have produced world class footballers like Diego Maradona but the South American country still has a long way to go in opening up its economy and attracting top-notch global investors.

Nevertheless, Argentina has a lot to offer global investors, particularly Malaysians, especially the opportunity to enter even bigger market, MERCOSUR, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) trade commissioner to Chile, Niqman Rafaee M. Sahar, said recently.

MERCOSUR, established in 1991, is a four-country trade bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"Beside narrowing our trade deficit with Argentina, Malaysian companies can also use the country as gateway to Mercosur, which has a market base of 200 million population," he said in an interview with Bernama on the opening of the new marketing office in Buenos Aires recently.

Since 1990, Malaysia had recorded trade deficits with Argentina. In 2010, trade balance recorded a deficit of RM2.66 billion and for the period of January to March 2011, Malaysia's trade deficit was valued at RM175.87 million.

Within South America, Argentina is the second largest exports destination market for Malaysia after Brazil.

"It has a lot to offer and to tap the country's potential and being physically present in Argentina can be a great advantage for Malaysia.

"It is not easy to deal with the Argentinian businessmen. That is why Malaysian companies should use our marketing office as it can provide fresh market intelligence on what is going on in the investment arena because of ever changing regulations and taxes in the country," he said.

Currently, Matrade has a full-fledged office in Chile, Brazil and Mexico, which are among the important markets in South America.

He said Argentina, being a strong player in agriculture, was quite protective of its domestic economy but was still much dependent on assistance from other countries especially in terms of new technology.

"Argentina is known as top producer of agriculture products especially wheat, cereal and soyaoil and Malaysia imports a lot of these products. Through this new office, we can explore other potential areas beside agriculture products," he said.

Among the potential sectors in Argentina include construction services, information, communication and technology, outsourcing services and tourism.

By having a Malaysia Airlines office in Buenos Aires, it also provides added advantage to Malaysian companies to enter the country compared to other competitors like China, Thailand and Vietnam, who have started to venture into the country.

The national carrier flies twice a week to Buenos Aires, every Wednesday and Sunday.

In 2010, Malaysia's export to Argentina increased by 35.4 per cent to RM619.28 million from RM457.32 million in 2009. Imports from Argentina grew by 48.7 per cent to RM3.28 million.

Total trade between the two amounted to RM3.9 billion in 2010, which was an increase of 46.4 per cent.

For January to March 2011, Malaysia's bilateral trade with Argentina recorded a decline of 8.4 per cent to RM633.71 million compared with RM691.63 million in the same period of 2010.

Malaysia's top export products to Argentina last year were electrical and electronic products, rubber products, crude rubber, other manufacturers products, optical and scientific products and palm oil.