Trade Minister Todd McClay travels to Malaysia today for high-level talks with Malaysian Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed and to mark 60 years of successful bilateral relations between the two countries.

Mr McClay will also speak about trade and investment opportunities in New Zealand at a business forum in front of 150 of Malaysia’s top executives and investors.

“We have made a lot of progress in 60 years, particularly since a free trade agreement (FTA) was signed between our two countries in 2010,” Mr McClay says.

“Malaysia is now our 10th largest two-way trading partner and in 2016 we exported more than a billion dollars of goods and services to them.

”Malaysia is also a big investor around the world and I will be talking to key business people about opportunities for greater two-way investment, including in New Zealand’s booming tourism, hotel and hospitality sectors.”

Malaysia is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) who are forecast by 2050 to consume three times more dairy and double the amount of fruit and meat than they consumed in 2007.

“The Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world and this presents a huge number of opportunities for our farmers, growers, exporters and our wider economy,” Mr McClay says.

“In January our FTA saw tariffs eliminated from 99.5 per cent of New Zealand’s exports to Malaysia. So we are very well placed to increase our trade and investment with this lucrative market.”

|  A Beehive release  ||  April 17, 2017   |||