Hello EU, We’re Malaysia

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Najib

(WSJ) - Malaysian delegates at this week’s Asia-Europe summit in Brussels have their work cut out for them. They must try to grab the attention of European diplomats who are likely to be more keen on chatting with the Koreans, Chinese, and even the Russians.

The country’s 57-year-old prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, did his best summing up of what his country is about in a roundtable conversation with a handful of reporters.

Malaysia, he said, stands out at the summit “as a moderate Muslim country” able to play a role in leading moderates everywhere “because the conflict is not about Islam but between extremists of all religions and moderates of all religions.” The key to solving the problem of radical Islam, he added, “is finding a solution to the Palestinian problem.”

Malaysia, which has a gross domestic product per capita of around $13,000, is the EU’s 15th biggest trading partner, shipping $20.3 billion worth of goods to the EU in 2009. Electronics, at $8.6 billion, were the biggest export. The EU is currently negotiating a free-trade deal with a group of Asian nations that includes Malaysia.

However, said Mr. Razak, for too many companies, only a small slice of the manufacturing and assembly happens in Malaysia. Often, companies make their parts in China or elsewhere. Then, they ship them to Malaysia for assembly and export. That gives Malaysians credit for exports when the goods are sold overseas, but deprives them of additional jobs and revenue.

“We’d like to see a bigger multiplier effect, with more parts of the supply chain, and the back office operations, happening in our country,” the prime minister said. “Within 10 years, we’d like to be a fully developed nation.”