November 20, 2009 10:22 AM

Malaysia Needs More Interaction With European Stakeholders

From Siti Hawa Othman

From Siti Hawa Othman

BRUSSELS, Nov 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs closer interaction with all its stakeholders in Europe for them to understand the country's constraints and for Malaysia to understand their constraints as well, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

"We've to engage more with the people in Europe to ensure our points get across," he told BERNAMA here at the end of the palm oil and timber mission to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium led by him from Nov 10 to 21.

He said the mission provided an opportunity to explain to the industry and to tackle the issues raised.

On the sustainable palm oil issue, Dompok said the ministers and parliamentarians he met during the mission appreciated that Malaysia had taken a lot of interest in ensuring it produced sustainable palm oil.

They understood that Malaysia, as a developing middle-income country, aspired to be a developed nation and they were assured that Malaysia would strike the right balance between the need for development and to protect the environment.

In his address at the forum on palm oil sustainability hosted by SME Union late Wednesday, Dompok said all Malaysia wanted was a level-playing field for its palm oil, in that they receive the same treatment as any other oil seeds in the European market.

While other oils were given subsidies, he said palm oil was not subsidised but was instead taxed on its outcome.

At the same time, the commodity has been heavily regulated and subjected to many laws.

"These include laws on land acquisitions, wildlife protection, permanent forest, environment, health welfare and others," he said.

Despite all these, palm oil has been on the forefront, being endorsed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as coming from a sustainable production.

Dompok also voiced concern over smear campaigns on palm oil.

He explained that the government promoted good agricultural practices and would not compromise on forest destruction.

Though facing difficult times, palm oil continued to maintain its standard in improving its sustainability report card.

Meanwhile, from January to August this year Malaysia exported 1.134 million tonnes of palm oil to the European Union, a drop of eight per cent from 2.03 million tonnes in 2008.

EU was the second largest palm oil buyer last year.

-- BERNAMA

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