Malaysian Imports to India

Malaysia is one of the tiger economies of south east Asia. And much of their wealth can be attributed to several countries importing from them. In fact, in 2017, their export industry generated $263 billion alone. This was in such vast contrast to their expenditure on imports- $197 billion, that the country was left in a positive trade balance of $66 billion. Malaysia is also one of the biggest countries in Asia, with a geographical area that maps 330,803 km². This has led to the country being separated into 13 different states for judicial purposes.

Now, the country is home to a population of approximately 32 million. Malaysia is also an extremely diverse country, in terms of both ethnicity and religion. This has led the country to be linguistically diverse as well. Now, more than four languages are widely spoken. Fortunately, English is a common second language and is also the official language used for business and trade. Thus, simplifying communication.

Malaysia gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1957. Thus, Malaysia co-opted the economic strategies of neighboring Asian countries to build upwards. Now Malaysia is the third most powerful economy of the South East Asian subcontinent. And subsequently places as the 35^th largest economy in the world. A rank that is reflected by their GDP of $354.348 billion. Such economic prowess was achieved only due to the concentrated efforts on making Malaysia an easy country to trade with. As of 2018, the country’s current ease of doing business with rank is 15. Thus, this awarded them with an economic score of 74 points. A value which declares that Malaysia is number 22 on a global scale in terms of economic freedom.

This boom in economy can be attributed to Malaysia making foreign investment easier and more accessible. Moreover, Malaysia tries to keep amicable diplomatic relations with its fellow Asian countries. One of such countries is India. Sharing many roots, the two countries have an illustrious relationship. In fact, their good relations have reaped several monetary benefits. One being their bilateral trade volume increasing. Currently, this value is at an all time high of $10.5 billion. And, is predicted to increase to $25 billion by the 2020 fiscal year.

Apart from their bilateral relations, the two countries are also on friendly terms due to a multitude of other reasons. These include educational and political reasons. Moreover, Malaysia is also home to a large population of Indian immigrants from its time as a British colony. Furthermore, the countries share several traditions and habits of culture.

The countries also have common ground in the sense that they have three mutual economic unions between them. They are as follows: The Commonwealth of Nations, the Asian Union and the G15. In fact, until 2013, Malaysia was 19^th in terms of investors in India. As of 2019, India has averaged a yearly spending of INR 53.33 billion on Malaysian imports. These imports hit a recorded high in April of 2018 with a value of INR 77.75 billion and has kept to a value towards INR 58 billion throughout 2019.

But what are India’s main imports from Malaysia? Malaysia in general is a hub for petroleum and palm oil products. Moreover, they are also a large manufacturer of electronic equipment.