PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and India have agreed to work closely to promote local currency settlement using the ringgit and rupee for bilateral trade and investments, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said that both Bank Negara Malaysia and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have agreed to work on this area to enable more efficient and cost-effective transactions.
Anwar said one notable aspect is the decision to use local currency as much as possible.
"Bank Negara and RBI have worked on this area for ringgit-rupee in our bilateral trade and investments," he said during the joint-press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi here at the Seri Perdana Complex here on Sunday (Feb 8).
Anwar said that Malaysia was looking forward to expanding and strengthening bilateral trades following India's economic growth in the international trade scene.
"And therefore Malaysia, in the Asean context, certainly benefits immensely if we could secure more ways and opportunities to collaborate with India, extending beyond the USD18.59bil that we achieved in 2025," said Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister.
In 2025, total trade between Malaysia and India reached RM79.49bil (USD18.59bil).
Malaysia’s total exports to India amounted to RM52.30bil (USD12.24bil) and total imports amounted to RM27.19bil (USD6.35bil).
Modi is on a two-day official visit to Malaysia starting Saturday (Feb 7) at Anwar’s invitation, reciprocating the Malaysian leader’s visit to India in August 2024.
Both countries also agreed to boost tourism and connectivity, and welcomed the existing visa liberalisation, as well as enhanced air connectivity.
