For the first five months of 2018, Sarawak’s trade saw a positive growth with total trade value of RM56.5 billion, an increase of 2.9 percent from the same period in 2017.
YB Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh stated this during his winding-up speech as Minister for International Trade and E-Commerce during the 7th day of the 1st Meeting of the 3rd Term of the 18th State Legislative Assembly on 17th July 2018.
Peninsular Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan remained as the State’s top five trading partners, contributing 68.7 percent of Sarawak’s total trade.
Trading between the State and ASEAN countries has also improved, with a trade value increase of 38.3 percent from RM4.4 billion in the first five months of 2017 to RM6.1 billion in the same period of 2018.
The State’s total export was RM39.4 billion from January to May 2018, most of which came from traditional major products such as liquefied natural gas; crude petroleum; palm oil; aluminium; petroleum condensate and others; and timber and timber products.
The export of ferroalloys, despite being a new product, has performed exceptionally well, contributing 5.0 percent of the State’s total export value.
With main export destinations being Japan, European Union (EU) and South Korea, it grew more than double from RM975.2 million in 2017 to RM2.0 billion in 2018.
Meanwhile, import value for Sarawak in the same period was RM17.1 billion, with major import products including machinery and transport equipment; chemicals; manufactured goods; and food.
