Malaysia
Netherlands Opens Local Agriculture Office
By Kamarul Aznam, The Halal Journal
Sep 13, 2006, 14:35

The Netherlands is keen to be identified within Malaysia’s current drive to make agriculture its third engine of growth, and one of its first moves towards this direction is by opening a local agriculture office here in Kuala Lumpur.

Said to be a reciprocal move of its Malaysian counterpart’s launch of their own office in The Hague / Rotterdam earlier this year, the Dutch’ Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality’s new regional office, which was launched yesterday (Sept 12) will also provide coverage for the Philippines and Singapore and will have the unequivocal objective of strengthening existing two way trade in agricultural and primal commodities between the two countries.

Speaking during yesterday’s launch at his residence, Dutch ambassador to Malaysia, His Excellency Lody Embrechts said that it is the aspiration and plan of the Ministry to see The Netherlands play a bigger role in the accelerated development of agriculture sector in Malaysia, especially now since the government have earmarked the sector as the nation’s third engine of growth.

“I sincerely hope that this new office will be able to increase trade and investment between our two countries, especially between government to government, government to private and private to private. In addition, we have also identified the Halal sector to be one of the fastest moving industries in Europe and we would like to offer our expertise in agro-logistics to complement the delivery of Halal foods to the European region,” he said.

Embrechts pointed out that recent announcements and advance meetings between ports authorities in both countries are proof that his government is fully aware of Malaysia’s intentions to become a global Halal hub and reiterates that Netherlands is ever willing to offer its expertise for Malaysia to achieve its ambitions.

“Islam today is the fastest growing religion in Europe and we recognise that foods Muslims eat must adhere strictly to the Islamic principles, including its entire supply chain, which also includes transhipments and storage. We hope to be able to play an integral role in this regard to ensure that all Halal food supplied to the region is 100 per cent Halal,” he said.

Aside from agriculture he added, Netherlands also have a strong focus in knowledge, identified as the means to encourage the necessary innovation in the sector. Their Wageningen University & Research Centre for instance, a joint initiative between the government, industry and research institute, have spearheaded extensive research in food and consumer sciences, as well as being one of the main driving forces behind the formulation of a European food safety policy.

Embrechts also pointed that Dutch agriculture owns much of its strength to good management, modern production methods as well as an agricultural model based on a tripartite relationship between education, research and extension. Together, these factors make for an environment that allows for it to stay ahead of the competition and for it not only to produce in quantity but also in quality, he said.

“The years ahead for Malaysian agriculture and Dutch input and contribution will promise to be challenging. In arable farming and plantation crops, the world expects not only food safety issues to be taken into account but also sustainability matters to be sufficiently address. In this, Malaysia will find a willing partner in the Dutch who are more than keen to be involved in the process and trade,” said Embrechts.

The Netherlands is Malaysia’s 12th largest trading partner globally, or the second largest trading partner within the EU. Malaysia’s total trade with Netherlands was valued at RM20.8 billion in 2005 comprising mainly of machineries and fabricated goods, electrical and electronics, palm oil and palm oil based products, timber / wood furniture as well as chemicals.

The small country the size of states of Pahang and Negeri Sembilan combined also contributed a total of RM1.6 billion worth of approved foreign investments to Malaysia in 2005, the fourth biggest after the US, Japan and Singapore.




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