KUALA LUMPUR, July 3: Malaysia and Syria plan to explore the possibility of a free-trade agreement (FTA) as the two countries strive to expand trade and investment ties, a trade minister said on Tuesday.

Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said such an FTA would be Syria's first with an Asian country.

“The Syrian side proposed that we should have FTA study. We agreed that we will have parallel studies and I'm sure a study will show the benefit of the FTA,” Rafidah said.

“We hope to be able to advise our respective governments by January next year. We have six months to do that,” she was quoted saying by state news agency Bernama.

Last year, Syria was Malaysia's 11th largest trading partner in West Asia with total trade between both countries valued at 578.3 million ringgit ($168.6 million).

Half of Malaysia's exports to Syria were textile and clothing while almost 90 per cent of imports from Syria to Malaysia were printed materials.

Rafidah was speaking after an inaugural trade committee meeting between the two countries. The Syrian team was headed by Rafidah's counterpart, Amer Husni Lutfi.

Lutfi welcomed a Malaysian initiative to set up a Malaysian-Syrian commercial bank in Damascus. He said there could be two possible arrangements for such a bank.

“One of them will be according to the agreement between the central bank of Syria and the Malaysian private bank and the other possibility will be between the private sectors of the two countries,” Lufti said through an interpreter.—AFP