Malaysian and Indian banks broker deal to boost trade

Malaysia-India trade stands to improve with the recent deal among a Malaysian and two Indian banks.

The Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd (Exim Bank) has signed a deal with the Indian banks, ICICI Bank Ltd and YES Bank, to further enhance Malaysia-India trade, especially in palm oil.

Exim Bank will provide credit lines to ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank and YES Bank, to facilitate the imports of goods from Malaysia. The facility is open to all manufactured goods and commodities from Malaysia.

Through this financing scheme, Exim Bank seeks to improve the competitiveness of Malaysia's products internationally.

Exim Bank managing director and CEO Datuk Adissadikin Ali hopes that with this enabling financing infrastructure, Exim Bank can partake in increasing the movement of goods and services between the two countries.

It is expected that palm oil will be among the leading sector that will benefit from the scheme in view of the importance of Indian market to Malaysia's palm oil. Malaysia exported some 1.82 million tonnes of palm oil products to India in 2011 valued at US$1.9 billion.

Incorporated in 1995, Exim Bank is wholly-owned by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance. Its role is to provide credit facilities and insurance services to support exports and imports of goods, services and overseas investments with emphasis on non-traditional markets. It also provides export credit insurance services, export financing insurance, overseas investment insurance and guarantee facilities.