Published on: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 |
Kota Kinabalu: Senator Datuk Maijol Mahap and his team took the opportunity to promote investment opportunities in Sabah and its tourism attractions during the recent Dewan Negara members' visit to the European Union (EU).
"I feel satisfied that I did my part to promote Sabah because every time I met dignitaries, I give them promotional brochures about investments and tourism in Sabah.
"To some European countries, as far as tourism is concerned, Malaysia means Sabah and Sarawak. They are attracted and fascinated by what we have to offer here to tourists," he said.
As part of the six-member delegation, Maijol believed the visit to the Czech Republic and Belgium was a success.
"The delegation met with high offices in those countries, to discuss economic and trade relations with Malaysia and the EU and development in Asean," he said in a statement here Tuesday.
"I have gained good experience during the visit. Our delegation met with Premysl Sobotkca, the President of the Czech Senate, Jan Fischer, the Prime Minister of Czech Republic, Jerzy Buze, the President of the European Parliament in Brussels and Armand DeDecker, the President of the Belgium Senate," he said.
"Beside that, our delegation also held discussions with Vital Moreira, the Chairman of the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament, and Heidi Hautala, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament," he said.
Maijol said he managed to speak on behalf of Malaysia in the Inter-Parliamentary meeting with the European Parliament delegation on a wide range of topics that covered economics, trade, palm oil issue, women's rights in the Malaysian legislative system as well as on the human rights issue particularly on the ISA perceived negatively in Europe.
Meanwhile, he said Malaysia's total trade with the EU in 2008 amounted to US$41 billion (RM137.2 billion) with exports totalling US$22.5 billion (RM75.3 billion) and imports amounting to US$18.5 billion (RM62 billion).
The major Malaysian exports to the EU were electrical and electronic products (51.8 per cent), palm oil (7.4 per cent), chemicals and chemical products (5.1 per cent), machinery appliances and parts (3.9 per cent) and rubber products (3.9 per cent).
In term of imports, major products from EU consisted of electrical and electrical products (38.7 per cent), machinery, appliances and parts (14.5 per cent), chemical and chemical products (10.6 per cent), transport equipment (9.5 per cent) and iron and steel products (6.1 per cent).
