Colombia keen to woo Malaysian oil palm, O&G investments
Colombia keen to woo Malaysian oil palm, O&G investments
Monday, 12 January 2015
KUALA LUMPUR: Colombia is keen to increase bilateral trade and investment with Malaysia and is inviting Malaysian companies to invest in its oil palm and oil and gas industries.
In 2013, Colombia-Malaysia bilateral trade stood at US$295mil with Malaysia exporting US$189mil worth of products to Colombia and importing US$106mil from Colombia.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) from Malaysia, however, contributed only 0.001% to the total FDI inflows into Colombia.
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar said the South American country, which has been rapidly growing in the last decade, is keen to invite Malaysia's national oil company Petronas to invest there.
"In the last 10 years, the country has improved a lot in terms of security and we have started to discover many oilfields.
"We now produce one million barrels per day and we want Petronas to come and see if they can make some investment," she told Bernama in an interview today.
She said Colombia has a competitive edge in the oil and gas sector as its oilfields are located onshore, compared to other Latin American countries' oilfields which are offshore.
Holguin Cuellar said the country has a similar climate to Malaysia due to its proximity to the equator which could be an advantage for Malaysian oil palm producers to expand their business in South America.
More:
http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2015/01/12/COLOMBIA-KEEN-TO-WOO-MALAYSIAN-OIL-PALM-O-and-G-INVESTMENTS/?style=biz
