Australia to open trade office in kuala lumpur

South Australia (SA) is to open a trade office in Kuala Lumpur. The announcement was made by the SA Industry and Trade Minister, Tom Koutsantonis at the Australia Malaysia Business Council, SA chapter Merdeka Awards night here at the weekend. Koutsantonis said the president of AMBC, SA chapter, Sathish Dasan and other AMBC officials had constantly been asking him to open an office in KL to seize the opportunities available in Malaysia and to sell SA as an excellent place to do business. At the moment SA's trade office in Singapore also covers Malaysia. "I have come to realise this is not satisfactory, so we will establish an office in Kuala Lumpur," Koutsantonis said. "The evolving economic and business environment in Malaysia presents new opportunities for business in both jurisdictions to benefit. "Like Malaysia, South Australia is focusing on its economic and industrial strengths as it pursues expansion, and there are certainly opportunities for Malaysian investment in these sectors." He said that with an increasingly competitive global economy, growth depended on businesses working with each other to establish and nurture mutually advantageous partnerships. "As these partnerships develop, the understanding in each region of the other's needs must also grow, leading to increasingly productive and profitable collaborations," Koutsantonis said. He said there were more than A$80 billion (billion) worth of major projects either under construction or in the pipeline in South Australia. "This level of business investment reflects the underlying level of confidence in this state's long-term economic future." Koutsantonis said strong commodity prices, increased mining activity and record grain harvest had boosted SA's export figures to record levels. "Malaysia played its role in this success as exports rose a massive 157 per cent - from A$295 million in 2009-10 to A$757 million this financial year," he said. The Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia Datuk Salman Ahmad pledged Malaysia's support for South Australia's enhanced interest in Malaysia. He said he would instruct the Sydney-based Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) officers to visit Adelaide and to work closely with the South Australian Government. Salman said South Australia had a strong history over the past decade of supporting two-way trade and investment with Malaysia. He said the past few years had been a time of financial uncertainty, especially in North America and in Europe. "For Malaysia and Australia, responsible government, fiscal responsibility and well managed economies have largely kept out two countries insulated from the upheaval and turmoil that had impacted significantly on the US and the European Union," Salman said.