Yunnan's Major Regions Agree to Cooperate with Malaysia on Trade and Halal Products

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left), on a state visit to China today, presented a souvenir to Ruan Chengfa, Governor of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, after their meeting. Yunnan has agreed in principle to cooperate with Malaysia on several related issues to promote trade growth, including the certification and transportation of Halal products.

Kunming: Yunnan has agreed in principle to cooperate with Malaysia on several related issues to promote trade growth, including the certification and transportation of Halal products.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said these issues were discussed today at a meeting with Yunnan Governor Ruan Chengfa and Chen Hao, Secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

He said that trade between Yunnan Province and Malaysia exceeded US$340 million between last November and this January, with Malaysia's main export to Yunnan being palm oil, while Yunnan's main exports to Malaysia were agricultural products.

However, he said there is huge potential for business development between the province and Malaysian companies.

'Malaysia has had some minor issues when talking about trade with Yunnan; specifically, the free trade agreement with China as a whole has not yet been finalized. But Malaysia has taken active measures to allow some Chinese products into the country.'

'The Ministry of International Trade and Industry will take some more active measures to increase trade with China.'

Zahid said Halal products are a good project. 'Specifically, (we can) export Halal raw materials to Yunnan Province and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

'In Xinjiang especially there are many Halal products, for example, Halal cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, so we can provide the Halal raw materials needed in production.'

'But one problem is that they do not have Halal certification,' he told Malaysian media, adding that Ruan and Chen had agreed to actively promote bilateral trade relations between Malaysia and Yunnan in the Halal industry on an official basis, as with B2B.

Zahid said that cooperation with Yunnan and Xinjiang would also help Malaysia share in the US$1.1 trillion global Halal market, because the sale of products can be internationalized.

He said that the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) Halal certification would also be 'internationalized' in this way, although it is already recognized by some countries, including South Korea and Japan, the latter of which, because it will host the next Olympics, needs to prepare Halal-certified food for athletes from Muslim countries.

Zahid said a JAKIM laboratory will be established in Yunnan, although it is too early to decide where to build it.

Regarding transportation, he said Yunnan officials are keen to build a high-speed rail between Bangkok and Kunming. This could connect some Asian countries together with the high-speed rail lines of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur; in addition to the proposed Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok line, there may now also be a Bangkok-Kunming line.

Zahid said such transportation would make it feasible for passengers to board in Singapore and travel all the way to Beijing, since there is currently also a high-speed rail line between Kunming and the Chinese capital.