'Malaysia keen to contribute to Make in India'

Malaysia is keen to invest more in India to contribute to the government's 'Make in India' campaign, visiting Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Bin Mohamed said here Thursday.

Addressing a seminar on "India-Malaysia Trade and Economic Cooperation in the Context of Indian Economy Dynamism and India's Act East Policy" here, Mohamed said that India and Malaysia have been close friends and are important trading partners. Their bilateral trade volume stands at $13.5 billion and is poised to reach much higher levels in future.

He also emphasised on India-ASEAN relations and said that India has been important in bridging the gap between Association of Southeast Asian Nations members. He said that this is a crucial time for Malaysia as it has assumed the ASEAN chair this year.

Mohamed stressed on developing closer partnerships to tap the huge unrealised economic potential between India and ASEAN through greater business-to-business and people-to-people collaboration, according to a press release by Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) that organized the seminar.

He said that Malaysians have been investing abroad and there are many Malaysian companies in India also. Malaysia is set to make more investment in India to contribute to 'Make in India' campaign, he added. Malaysian investments in India stand at $6 billion while Indian investment in Malaysia is only $1.2 billion.

Ravi Capoor, joint secretary, in the commerce and industry ministry, added this is the time for East. He said that while there is an India-Malaysia CECA in place but its utilisation has been only 5 percent. "To overcome this, we need to educate our industries to increase our business," he said.

Sachin Chaturvedi, director-general, RIS said that with the change in government, India is undergoing many policy changes of which four dimensions could be highlighted. These include investment, infrastructure, ease of doing business, technology and innovation and labour reforms.

Mohamed is on a three-day visit to India.