Malaysian news: it is understood that Malaysia and Vietnam signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) with the timber industry sector on June 15. This time, Malaysia and Vietnam worked together to help the two countries further develop the timber trade.

Previously, Malaysia proposed to cooperate closely with the United States and Britain to solve the shortage of wood and wood products faced by the two countries.

MOC is in line with the 2000 ASEAN Summit agreement, which launched the ASEAN integration initiative to narrow the development gap and improve the competitiveness of the ASEAN region in global economic development.

In terms of forest products trade between Malaysia and Vietnam, in 2021, Malaysia’s total export of wood products to Vietnam was 38.44 million US dollars (1 US =4.41 guilders), while the total import of wood products from Vietnam was 148.25 million US dollars.

Despite the epidemic and global economic recession in the past two years, Malaysia’s wood industry still performs well. The export volume in 2021 was rm22.7 billion, an increase of 3.1% over rm22.0 billion in 2020.

In Vietnam, in the first four months of this year, the export turnover of Vietnam’s timber and wood products was estimated to be US $5.48 billion, an increase of 4.9% over the same period in 2021.

It can be seen that the exports of timber and wood products from Malaysia and Vietnam remain strong.

It is expected that the wood industry cooperation between Malaysia and Vietnam will closely integrate and promote the development of ASEAN’s economic and trade development, and also strengthen the docking of ASEAN’s wood trade.