A day after ASEAN-BAC Chair Tan Sri Nazir Razak urged stronger ASEAN–Russia economic ties, collaborative efforts have already begun. Astro AWANI's Najib Aroff speaks to Executive Director of ASEAN - BAC Malaysia's Jukhee Hong in St. Petersburg.
00:00A day after Chairperson of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, Tan Sri Nazir Razak, called for a renewed push to expand ASEAN-Russia economic ties, the work has already begun to bear fruit.
00:21It started with the business community finding solutions and doing business together.
00:26Esther Awani, Lead Editor Najib Arouf speaks to Juhi Hong, Executive Director of ASEAN-BARK Malaysia in St. Petersburg.
00:56Back in 2016, now it is stood at $16 billion, it shows a lot of and greater potential between two sides basically.
01:07But how do we do this on the corporate level, business level, business community level in that space?
01:15Yeah, thank you very much for having me. I think it is elaborated by my Chairman, Tan Sri Nazir, that I think there's not enough information on both sides.
01:24I think the ASEAN region also must learn more about Russia and vice versa. So that's the first thing that I think we can do is to provide the kind of, to bridge the gap.
01:35And what the business community can also contribute due to this process is to perhaps participate in this kind of forum that you actually need.
01:46So many participants from around the region, not just Russia. And this is not my first time here actually. I've been here, this is my third time.
01:54And I realized that, you know, there's so much going on here. And I think back home, we always talk about ASEAN and Asia Pacific.
02:02There's a lot to explore. And you mentioned about the data that Tan Sri mentioned, it is true that, you know, there's a greater, you know, there's a lot of room for us to improve in terms of getting more business interactions going on and also to explore business opportunities.
02:19But for ASEAN BAC itself, how do you guys approach these businesses? Because as we all know that Russia is facing sanctions in the global arena. How do we maneuver these three key situations?
02:35Yeah, I guess we take the cues from the leaders. I think from Malaysia's point of view, our Prime Minister has been to Russia twice already.
02:45So that gives a lot of signals to the business community. So we take the cues from the top and that shows that, you know, we can actually continue to strengthen and explore collaboration with Russia.
02:57But in terms of really bringing it to home, in terms of materializing all these potential, I think there are some gaps that we must bridge.
03:05For instance, payment. I think that's something that businesses will really need to know that being settled or solved before real business cooperation and deals can happen.
03:17Yeah. My final questions. What are some of the key takeaways from this year's forum? Because you've been here three times already.
03:27Yeah, I think Russia is always keen to show their excellence in technology and also in the energy sector.
03:39But I think that message probably can be better amplified. And I think ASEAN as a region definitely can further explore how we can build those linkages.
03:49Since 2017, when I was first here, I was very impressed with the scale and the variety of excellence and expertise that they are portraying.
04:01And from the discussions we have, it seems that they are doing well. The economy is thriving despite the political, larger political environment that we know of.
04:11But I think, you know, that's where ASEAN BAC can really play a role in clarifying some of the gaps of information and see how we can support the business sector from where we sit.
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