M'SIA'S TRADE WITH ASEAN TO REMAIN STRONG

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's trade this year with Asean
member countries is expected to remain strong despite the global slowdown and
lower growth expected within the region, says the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry (Miti).

The ministry is intensifying its awareness programme on the various Asean
initiatives to enable more companies to benefit from the preferential trade
concessions negotiated by Malaysia, it said in a statement here Thursday.

"One initiative is to continue promoting the use of preferential
certificates for the 14,210 companies registered with the Malaysia External
Trade Development Corporation (Matrade)," Miti said.

Miti is also working closely with the Malaysian Services Development Council
to create an awareness among Malaysian services suppliers, of the opportunities
available in the services sector in Asean.

It said Matrade is also extending its promotional efforts to help Malaysian
services suppliers export their services to Asean countries.

According to Miti, Malaysia's exports to Asean totalled RM155.6 billion in
2007 or accounted for 25.7 percent of the country's total exports.

Imports from Asean totalled RM123.4 billion and it remained the second
largest import source market for Malaysia.

Trade for the first 11 months of 2008 reached RM279.1 billion compared with
RM253.1 billion for the corresponding period in 2007.

Exports from January-November last year increased by 13.8 percent to RM160.6
billion compared to RM141.1 billion in 2007. Imports grew by 5.9 percent to
RM118.5 billion. (US$1=RM3.61)
-- BERNAMA