Malaysia and UAE seals over Dhs397 million investments

Malaysia far exceeded its expectations when it attracted $108.34 million (Dhs397.94 million) in potential trade and investments during the Sustainable Agriculture Week at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries Malaysia (MAFI) hosted the week, which ran from Feb.21 to 26, with the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation (Bioeconomy Corporation), as the implementing agency.

The week saw close to 40,000 visitors who attended the Malaysia Pavilion and participated in Sustainable Agriculture programmes, including its exhibition, tropical fruit showcase, cooking demonstrations, product launches, pocket talks, and MoU exchanges. The week also attracted delegates from Senegal, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Japan, India, and Slovakia who were interested in exploring Malaysia’s sustainable agriculture.

This resulted in 20 companies securing 70 business leads with other international partners at the expo besides the 12 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) exchanged with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, Sweden, Maldives, and Egypt.

In addition, over 40 companies were involved in digital business matching through MAFI’s microsite. More business activities are expected to continuously happen through the microsite beyond Sustainable Agriculture Week.

Secretary General of MAFI, Dato’ Haslina Abdul Hamid said the achievements recorded during the week hold a bright future for sustainable agriculture in Malaysia and prove that other nations, especially the UAE, are interested to work closely with Malaysia in developing sustainable agriculture. She added that bilateral cooperation on agriculture between Malaysia and the UAE has opened up the possibilities for further growth in the agriculture trade.

“Both countries are giving importance on strengthening food security to safeguarding food supply for their citizens and residents.

“This is reflected through UAE’s introduction of UAE National Food Security Strategy 2051 and the various initiatives and programs that comes under this strategy.

“On the same note, Malaysia has its own initiative to strengthen food security through her Cabinet Committee for National Food Security Policy. Through this committee, various programs and initiatives have been outlined to increase food security in Malaysia.

“In this matter, Malaysia hopes new collaboration with UAE will enable to bridge the gap in its effort to overcome the current limitations and difficulties to produce food due to climate change,” said Haslina when summing up the targets and achievements at the end of the Sustainable Agriculture Week today.