THIS year is expected to be a better year for Malaysian trade which will lead to more job creation, said International Trade and Industry (Miti) Minister Mustapa Mohamed.

Mustapa said international trade in the first four months of the year grew by 23.6% while overall trade for 2017 is projected to grow by 5%.

Last year, Malaysian trade grew by 1.5% and totalled RM1.485 trillion.

The exceptional growth in trade early this year was mainly being driven by increased trade with Asean, China, Japan, India, the European Union and the United States, according to the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).

“Given all the geo-political uncertainties, we are maintaining a forecast of 5% for the year even though for the first four months, growth has been 23.6%.

“There is no guarantee that this can be sustained although we are confident of a better year (compared to the last),” Mustapa told reporters after launching MITI’s 2016 trade report in Kuala Lumpur today.

Electronic and electrical products took up the biggest chunk or 35% of all exports in the first four months of this year.

Mustapa said more jobs are expected to be added to the market as trade increases this year which means unemployment will hover around 3.5%.

“When trade increases it will create more job opportunities. For every additional ringgit we make in trade, we create one more new job,” Mustapa said.

Since the Economic Transformation Programme was launched, 2.3 million new jobs have been created, he said.

Miti said about 88,100 new jobs are expected to be created in the service sector from the RM207.9 million in total foreign direct investments Malaysia secured in 2016.

The service sector took 67.9% of these new investments in 4,199 newly approved projects. The sector is expected to grow at 6.8% per year, provide 9.3 million jobs and contribute 56.5% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in 2020.

The manufacturing sector expanded by 3.2% and accounted for 82.2% of total exports. Exports of electrical and electronic products rose by 3.5% to RM287.73 million. – June 20, 2017.