Doing business with Malaysia

With a long four-day weekend to enjoy, events on Friday and Saturday were not all strictly business.

Last Saturday, the Malaysian Embassy, led by Ambassador Melvin Castelino, took the opportunity to invite Philippine journalists to a media night at the Ambassador’s residence in Makati, where they mixed diplomacy with art and introduced some of the Malaysian artists and organizers that will participate in an art exhibit next week as part of the continuing celebration of the Philippines and Malaysia’s six decades of friendship.

Of course, being a business journalist at heart, I took the opportunity to ask the Embassy’s Trade Commissioner, Intan Zalani, for the two-way trade figures between the Philippines and Malaysia and was surprised to learn that the Philippines has been importing more from our ASEAN neighbor.

Based on trade figures monitored by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp., or MATRADE, total trade between our two nations amounted to $4.75 billion from January to July this year, in favor of Malaysia.

Malaysia’s exports to the Philippines for the first seven months of this year grew by 10 percent to $3.55 billion, but its imports from us decreased by 4.6 percent to $1.2 billion.

Malaysia’s top five exports to us are: petroleum products valued at $1.026 billion, which increased by 101.6 percent; electrical and electronic products amounting to $634.8 million, decreasing by 13.8 percent; palm oil and palm oil-based products amounting to $304 million, which showed an almost 21-percent increase; chemicals and chemical products amounting to $287 million, decreasing by four percent; and processed food amounting to $245.7 million, an increase of 8.7 percent.

On the other hand, Malaysia’s top imports from the Philippines are mostly part of the global supply chain of manufacturers, and these include electrical and electronic products amounting to $665.2 million, a decrease of almost 14 percent; other vegetable oil amounting to $68.4 million, which increased by 98.7 percent; machinery, equipment and parts amounting to $57.7 million, which decreased by 15.5 percent; other manufactured goods amounting to $55.3 million, which increased by 80.7 percent; and manufactures of metal amounting to almost $53 million, for a decrease of 29.5 percent.

Culture and arts

As part of the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations between Malaysia and the Philippines, the Malaysian Embassy, in collaboration with One Ayala, the Makati City Council and Artemis Art, is organizing an art expo from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 at Level 2, Concourse, One Ayala, Makati City.

With the theme “Celebrating Friendship Through Art - A Kaleidoscope of 60 Years of Diplomatic Relations Between Malaysia and the Philippines,” the art expo will feature the artworks of Malaysian and Filipino artists.

Participating Malaysian artists are Dato Prof. Tajuddin Ismail, SC Shekar, Juhari Said, Anniketyni Madian and Syahbandi Samat while the Filipino participating artists are Anthony Palomo, Ramon Orlina, Francisco Guerrero, Dennis Bato and Niakie.

Aside from the artworks, visitors will be treated to cultural performances by Touché Production, which came all the way from Malaysia. Visitors may also participate in the panel discussions, which will include some of the featured artists. The panel discussion on Aug. 31 will delve into the Perspectives on Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, while Perspectives on Contemporary Photography from Two Generations of Photography will be the focus of the discussion on Sept. 1.

The art expo is free and open to the public. The opening ceremony on Aug. 30 will be led by Ambassador Castelino, Makati Mayor Abigail Binay-Campos, government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and other dignitaries.

Through the art expo, the Malaysian Embassy hopes that visitors will be able to appreciate Malaysian and Filipino art and that it will open the door to more collaborations between Malaysia and the Philippines in the field of arts.

EJAP is all business

What started out as an organization based on friendship among business journalists almost 40 years ago has now truly evolved into a business-oriented economic journalism organization.

The Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) held its annual general membership meeting last Friday at the Melting Pot venue of ACEN at Ayala Triangle Gardens Tower 2 in Makati.

Under the able stewardship of its current board, led by Reuters reporter Jerome Morales, EJAP has been performing quite well financially and has lined up a series of interesting business forums from September to November.

Slated for Sept. 9 is the EJAP-SMC Aviation Forum, which will be sponsored by San Miguel Corp., during which SMC will unveil its plans for its forthcoming takeover of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sept. 14.

Another interesting forum is the EJAP-AboitizPower Renewable Energy Forum on October 4, followed by a still-to-be-scheduled infrastructure forum.

On Nov. 8, the organization will hold its annual EJAP Awards, which will be sponsored again this year by Ayala Corp.

The current EJAP Board is also in talks with SMC to put up its own website, which will become a repository and archive of the organization’s outstanding articles and which would boost the organization’s online presence.