GOOD morning Baltimore; every day’s like an open door. So goes the lyrics of a song from the musical Hairspray which was set here, known also as Charm City.
Well, a trade and investment delegation from Malaysia had knocked on those doors, led by Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ng Lip Yong.
He came to this city in Maryland on a mission to sell Malaysia to businessmen here, presenting all the facts and figures about the ties that bind the two countries.
The United States, he told them, was Malaysia’s largest trading partner.
“US statistics on Malaysia’s trade through Baltimore port in 2006 showed that total trade amounted to US$67mil (RM222mil), an increase of almost 17% compared with the previous year,” he said.
Exports from Malaysia to Baltimore totalled US$56mil (RM185.5mil), mostly furniture, wood and rubber products.
Ng noted also that US companies in the surrounding states of Maryland have operations in Malaysia, including Johnson & Johnson, Crest Group, GlaxoSmith Kline, The Boeing Company and W.R. Grace & Co, a chemical and materials company.
Even the weather was a topic.
“Now that it is winter, let me tell you that Malaysia is a sunny place,” he quipped to chuckles from the 130 participants at the Malaysia-US Business Opportunitier seminar on Tuesday.
Ng, however, sure took his job seriously. He arrived in Baltimore on Monday evening and worked on his power point presentation till 3am, he said in an interview later.
“Since it is my first time leading such a mission to the United States, I thought I had better get it right,” he said, and tapping his forehead, added: “My minister would have everything up here.”
That, of course, was in reference to Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz who couldn’t make this trip. The Iron Lady is a figure who looms large in such missions.
US-Asean Business Council senior director Marc P. Mealy, who is well acquainted with Malaysian affairs, assured the Americans that they would find the country a pleasant place to live and work in.
“There are malls for your teenage kids. Designer labels are there, so are Starbucks and golf courses,” he said.
Although Ng explained at length about Malaysia being a moderate Muslim country, (“Look at me, I’m not a Muslim yet I am appointed a deputy minister,” he pointed out) no one brought up the issue during the question-and-answer session.
Perhaps the only “controversial” topic was the National Economic Policy, which Ng acknowledged was frequently raised.
“You have to look at the bigger picture. Some of you may not be agreeable 100% with it. But it has been a stability factor to make sure everyone gets a piece of the pie,” Ng explained.
As Mealy put it, the NEP was affirmative action for the majority.
Other questions touched on a free trade agreement, oil and gas development, the legal system, Islamic financing, the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, and the flow of US goods to Malaysia.
Ieasha Prime, owner of a clothing business, was concerned about labour regulations, to which Ng replied: “I can assure you that there are no sweatshops in Malaysia.”
Almost half of the participants were from the manufacturing sector.
This was Malaysia’s second mission to the United States this year. Rafidah led one to Miami, Florida, earlier.
Malaysian Industrial Development Authority director (New York) Wan Hashim Wan Jusoh said that Baltimore was selected this time because it fitted the profile that Malaysia wanted.
“It has good potential in trade. Also, it is an entry point to the mid-Atlantic region. Its proximity to Washington DC is another plus,” he said.
Besides, there had never been a Malaysian trade mission to Baltimore.
“We try not to repeat the cities that we have covered in the past three years,” he said.
Ng’s task, which ends on Dec 20, has two other stops – Dallas and Portland.
But as pointed out by Mealy, the big boys in the business know about Malaysia already.
“It’s the medium-sized businesses where the focus should be on, as they tend to think of China and India when you mention Asia to them.”
“Malaysia is still not sufficiently known to the average American businessman,” he said.
