Kuala Lumpur: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) urged Malaysian businesses, including Chinese businessmen, to look into Russian trade prospects.
Its President Tan Sri T.C Goh noted that although yearly bilateral trade between the two countries had increased to USD 3 billion in recent years, there are still many undiscovered markets in Russia.
He said trade between Malaysia and Russia covers such items as crude oil, rubber products, petroleum products, minerals, manufacturing, aviation, military equipment and arms, machinery, etc.
He was speaking at a dialogue held in conjunction with the courtesy call by Stanislav Krans, the Deputy Head of Mission, for the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Malaysia, at Wisma Huazong, here.
Krans was accompanied by his colleagues, Counsellor Alexander Zimin and Second Secretary VadimZamkovyy.
Goh who is also President of The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) went on to note that diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Russia were established via signing of trade treaty, during the “Soviet Union” era in 1967.
Subsequently, the introduction of direct flights and signing of a new Trade Treaty between Malaysia and Russia, in 2012 and 2016, further boosted bilateral trade between the two countries.
“All these years, Russia has been a key trading partner of Malaysia, ranking among the top 30, besides being Malaysia’s biggest trading partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), for both import and export,” he said.
Trade aside, Russia is also among the favourite nations for Malaysian students to further their studies, especially in medical education. Over the years, Russia’s affordable yet high-quality medical education has produced many outstanding physicians and specialists from Malaysia.
“Besides this, Russia is also renowned for its music and arts, theatre and movie courses, which till this day continue to attract a huge number of overseas students, Malaysian students included, each year,” he added President Vladimir Putin visited Kuala Lumpur twice.
Goh is convince that diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Russia will continue to grow from strength to strength.
He hoped Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin could conduct a historical meeting in the near future, to further boost bilateral relations, and to chart new bilateral directions for Malaysia and Russia.
Noting that Russia has a Muslim population estimated at 20 million, Krans disclosed that the Government of Russia plans to organise a Russian Muslim cultural exhibition in Malaysia later this year.
As for the aspect of cultural exchange between Russia and Malaysia, he assured that the Russian government is ever-ready to deploy some of its top notch national ballet troupes to perform for the Malaysian audience, provided there’s a proper arrangement for such an event to take place.
Krans further noted that Russia has many professionals who are well-versed in English and Chinese languages, and the Russian Embassy in Malaysia is currently studying the feasibility of establishing Russian language education in selected schools in Malaysia.
He acknowledged that all these while, the bilateral relations between Malaysia and Russia were mainly official (government to government) in nature, and hence a vast majority of Malaysians finds Russia unfamiliar.
The Russian Embassy in Malaysia thus hoped bilateral relations and bilateral trade between the people of the two countries will be boosted, after this.
He also reckoned that being the highest leading Chinese organisation in Malaysia, Huazong is most suited to play a significant role, in this regard.
