KUALA LAMPUR: Visiting
Malaysian PM
Anwar Ibrahim is expected to make an emphatic pitch for Indian investments to revive his country’s economy and amplify its
digital
and
green energy
sectors given India’s solid experience and skill. Anwar is scheduled to reach Delhi on Monday evening. This will be Malaysia’s first prime-ministerial visit to India since 2018.
He will meet PM Narendra Modi on August 20.
Sources said the two sides are working towards a substantive agreement on the
start-ups
sector. Currently, Indian start-ups like RazorPay and Pine Labs have nearly 70 percent share of the digital payment market, B2B, in Malaysia. Local start-ups, on the other hand, are tapping into India’s digital technology sector.
Talking to TOI in Kuala Lumpur, industry leaders and policymakers said two important takeaways for Malaysia on bilateral trade would be – getting India’s expertise from its National Skill Development programme, and collaboration and support on
Electric Vehicles
(EVs) and Artificial Intelligence.
India has a robust longterm growth trajectory, aided by new EV policy measures that are wooing investors. But with Tesla recently scrapping its plan to manufacture EVs in Malaysia, government here finds itself in a difficult spot. It has, from time to time, announced its readiness to shift gears in the car market and build an EV ecosystem with battery development. Barring a few wealthy buyers, EVs still face low demand. Experts in the sector believe Anwar will seek
investment
from India to grow this promising but nascent industry in Malaysia.
Other key sectors will include import of palm oil from Malaysia that suffered due to former PM Mahathir Mohamad’s trenchant posturing on Kashmir. Anwar will seek to iron this out with PM Modi.
India imported Malaysian palm oil to the value of 7.08 billion Malaysian Ringgit between January to August 2023. The two sides will also review the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to include new items on the list.