Malaysia’s trade will not be significantly affected by the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU), says Second International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Ka Chuan.

He said the global trade direction is still on the right track.

However, the current situation in Europe warrants a new approach in trade negotiations, Ong told reporters after launching the ‘Exploring e-Commerce Opportunities in China through Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Online Platform Seminar’ in Kuala Lumpur today.

The UK is expected to leave the EU after a referendum showed 51.7 percent of its people voted for the country to exit the bloc.

Ong also said the latest development in the EU would have some impact on the on-going free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between Malaysia and the economic bloc.

Yesterday, the ministry’s secretary-general Rebecca Sta Maria said the Malaysia-EU FTA negotiations would proceed as scheduled later this year.

Earlier in his speech at the seminar, Ong urged local exporters to embark on e-Commerce in order to expand their market share in China.

The seminar is a collaboration between the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation and ICBC, which offers its ‘Rong E Gou’ online platform for Malaysian players.

ICBC’s Rong E Gou has achieved an accumulated transaction of over 870 million renmimbi and had more than 30 million registered customers in 2015.

Early this year the e-Commerce platform set up a page dedicated for Malaysian products.

- Bernama