KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 ― Russia’s Business Council for Cooperation with Malaysia (BCCM) and the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) today established the Russia-Malaysia Business Council.

The aims to strengthen business collaborations in economic, scientific, technology and cultural sectors.

BCCM Chairman, Dr Vladimir N. Sautov, said Russia was keen on investments and saw various opportunities to do so in Malaysia and the ASEAN region.

“The business council expects to patron about 100 investment projects in various Malaysian businesses and is positive on the agriculture and biotechnology sectors,” Vladimir told reporters after the signing of the agreement here today.

ASLI’s Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Michael Yeoh, said the business council would facilitate direct contacts, dialogues, opinions and information exchange between business leaders of both countries.

Yeoh said the collaborations would include conducting research on various issues, organising seminars, roundtables and conferences in Russia and Malaysia.

“We are hoping to promote Malaysia as regional hub for ASEAN to Russian investors and businessmen, who had expressed their interests to do so.

“We are looking to enhance collaborations in science and technologies, promoting education and tourism to attract more Russians to Malaysia,” he said.

On exports, Yeoh said, Malaysian products to Russia must be broader and developed.

“Most of them now are commodities like palm oil and imports are military equipment such as jet fighters.

“Last year, bilateral trade with Russia dropped to almost 40 per cent due to the economic slowdown but we expect this to be temporary,” he said. ― Bernama