Russia Views Malaysia as Long-Term Investment Partner

Russia views Malaysia as a long-term investment partner and sees clear benefits to increased cooperation, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian minister noted a 22.8 percent growth in bilateral trade in the last year, emphasizing the lack of mutual discriminatory restrictions.

"Malaysia is one of Russia’s most promising trade partners among ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries," Ulyukayev said, following talks with Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed.

Ulyukayev added that current Russian-Malaysian trade levels had not reached desired levels yet, suggesting the creation of a ministerial-level task force to boost priority investment projects proposed by Russia in November 2014.

"We are closely monitoring the development of a range of jointly initiated projects in innovative medicine, nuclear technology, information security and laser technology," the minister observed.

He added that the two countries could intensify trade and investment cooperation by outlining priority industries, as well as setting up intergovernmental trade, scientific and technical commissions.

Ulyukayev is in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to hold Russia-ASEAN economic ministerial consultations.