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The Malaysian Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) organised a seminar entitled  “Optimising Opportunities under AFTA and Other ASEAN Regional FTAs” on 15 September 2009 (Tuesday), at MATRADE Hall.  Invitation to the seminar was circulated to the Malaysian Bar Members via Circular No 253/2009 on 8 September 2009.

In his keynote address, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir, the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), stressed the importance of export opportunities under the free trade agreements (FTAs), in particular with ASEAN country members.

Ravindran Palaniappan, Senior Director of ASEAN Economic Cooperation Division (MITI), then talked about how many countries and economic blocks, such as Turkey and Latin America, are interested to have an FTA with ASEAN, instead of an FTA with a single ASEAN member country.  ASEAN has a population of 583.7 million with a GDP growth of 4.4% and exports totaling approximately US$879 billion.  As an economic regional block, ASEAN has what it takes to compete strongly with China and India, the two largest economic powers in Asia.

At present, ASEAN members are working towards the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, which will transform ASEAN into a single market and production base.  The five core elements of an ASEAN single market and production base are free flow of goods, free flow of services, free flow of investment, freer flow of capital and freer flow of skilled labour.  This would turn ASEAN into a more dynamic and competitive regional growth centre, with full integration into the global economy.

Under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), Malaysia has committed to eliminate import duties on 2,123 products by 2010, including mineral products, chemical products and rubber.

Mohd Mustafa Abdul Aziz, a representative from MATRADE, asserted the importance of China as an export market for Malaysia.  Our country ranks first among other ASEAN countries as a major source of import for China.   Presently, Malaysia exports eight of the products in the top 20 that China imports from the world.

Although the seminar focused more on the trade of goods instead of the trade of services, MATRADE stressed that the Malaysian government is placing more emphasis on the latter.  The government fully expects the trade of services to boom parallel with the trade of goods in the near future.

The seminar ended at 1.30 pm, after which participants were given the opportunity to have one-to-one consultations with any of the speakers.

In April 2009, the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced that five foreign law firms be allowed to enter Malaysia on a stand-alone basis to conduct legal transactions in the Islamic banking and finance sector.  During the one-to-one consultation session, the question of who will be the regulator for the law firms was posed to Ravindran Palaniappan.  He replied that they would come under the supervision and scrutiny of the Minister of Finance and Bank Negara Malaysia.  He also added that Malaysia would not liberalise the legal services sector unilaterally in the near future and the entry of the five foreign law firms is on an urgent basis to push the government’s Malaysian International Islamic Finance Centre (MIFC) initiative.  Before ending, the Senior Director stressed that the government will keep engaging the Bar Council and the Attorney-General’s Chambers on matters pertaining to liberalising the legal services sector.