Cargo ships at the port of Georgetown in Malaysia (Photo: AFP)
KualaLumpur (VNA) - The US-China trade war has begun tobenefit Malaysian producers as exporters of the two countries arelooking for alternative sources of materials.
NationalPresident of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (SMEMalaysia) Michael Kang Hua Keong said at a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur onAugust 10 that based on the feedback from its members, the trade war has had a positiveimpact on domestic manufacturers.
Accordingto Kang, sales of many Malaysian businesses have increased. He cited anexample of a Penang-based cable producer which had secured additionalorders worth 5 million USD from both US and China customers in the last twomonths.
Meanwhile,Ong Yew Chee, Director (China and Northeast Asia Section) of Malaysia ExternalTrade and Development Corporation's (Matrade) Exports Promotion and MarketAccess Division, said Malaysia and other regional countries are expectedto experience an increase in investment inflows following the US-China trade dispute.
Chinaand the US will look at Malaysia because it is not directly affected by the tradewar between the world’s biggest economies, he explained.
Accordingto Ong, the Donald Trump administration's imposition of increasedtariffs on Chinese goods offers Malaysia and other regional countries acompetitive advantage to export products to the US market.
However,Ong remained hopeful the conflict would not escalate into afull-blown trade war because it would give lots of problems to many countries, notonly Malaysia.
Accordingto the official, the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry,which last month set up a task force to study the impact of the tradeconflict, had been monitoring the development closely.-VNA
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Cargo ships at the port of Georgetown in Malaysia (Photo: AFP) 
