The Herald spoke to Azman Rahim, Malaysian Ambassador to Argentina, about Argentina’s RIGI large investment regime, what it means for the YPF-Petronas LNG plant, and Malaysia’s upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chairmanship. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The RIGI has been approved nationally, but now has to be discussed on a provincial level. What impact does that have?

For me, the RIGI itself is a work in progress, because yes, it’s been approved at the federal 

level, but of course it needs to be debated at the provincial government level. So it’s very important for us to see the overall implementation, how it will be executed, and the time frame. So it’s still a work in progress. Having said that, we will work closely, because Petronas and YPF, we are the two partners, so we will work closely with the provincial government and with all the stakeholders. That’s the key.

The YPF and Petronas LNG project could be the first large international project to enter the RIGI, as opposed to the local projects we’ve seen subscribing. What does that mean?

It means that the RIGI would be an indicator for us. We have to understand the structure of the RIGI. This is not only for foreign investors, but for local investors as well. So it will benefit investors overall. At this stage, people see that the first foreign investment project is between YPF and Petronas. Because of the timing it’s happened that way. So, of course, it will be a benchmark, an indicator. This is a very important project because it will change the landscape of the economy of Argentina, especially the energy sector. You have to understand that we’ve had this agreement signed since 2022. We have done the feasibility studies and everything. The RIGI is important for us because it paves the way to the next level.

What’s Malaysia’s position on the RIGI in general?

For us, it’s similar to other foreign investors: we see RIGI as a platform to do good business with Argentina. And also, we believe that if RIGI is implemented systematically, the ease of doing business in Argentina will be improved, there’s no doubt about that. Provided that

there will be a concrete framework, consistency, and tight coordination between all agencies. We have to look beyond RIGI, as well, in terms of the capital controls. Foreign investors look not just at RIGI, but the entire economic or investment framework. 

You may also be interested in: RIGI: understanding Argentina’s new large investment regime

Is the RIGI enough on its own? How do Argentina’s continued exchange restrictions affect the investment climate?

If you ask me, we need more than RIGI. Especially, capital controls have not yet been addressed. Some of the issues that foreign investors are facing at the moment have still not been addressed properly. But I believe RIGI will be a breakthrough for the government to improve, and to have more negotiation and discussion with us.

Malaysia will be the rotating president of ASEAN next year. Do you have plans for Argentina and the region?

Yes. First, we see Argentina and MERCOSUR as our strategic partners. In fact, during the Foreign Minister’s visit to Malaysia in March, Foreign Minister Mondino expressed Argentina’s intention to become a development partner of ASEAN. So, we would like to support Argentina’s intention during our chairmanship.

And what would it mean for Argentina to be an ASEAN development partner?

So, Chile is the first country in Latin America to become an ASEAN development partner. When you become a development partner, you can work closely more with us in terms of our technical cooperation, in terms of our capacity-building program. Not only that — Argentina can also channel their cooperation, their technical expertise, with ASEAN and vice versa. So it will be more dynamic, that’s number one.

And then number two, we also would like to see parliamentarian engagement. We have no parliamentarian engagement. At the moment ASEAN has the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentarian Assembly, or AIPA. We were told that Argentina is also interested in engaging and establishing the group, so I plan to make a courtesy call to the Chamber of Deputies to have further discussion with them so we can have parliamentarian engagement, not only economic engagement.

We would also like to encourage more engagement between MERCOSUR and ASEAN. Just last year, Singapore concluded a free trade agreement with MERCOSUR. That makes Singapore the first ASEAN member state to do so. At the moment Indonesia and Vietnam are negotiating free trade agreements. Malaysia will also start our negotiations on a free trade agreement with MERCOSUR soon. 

So, in the new Malaysian chairmanship, we would like to have more engagement with Latin America, because ASEAN and MERCOSUR have been disengaged for quite some time. The last engagement between the two regions was in 2017.

What sectors stand to benefit in each region?

For Malaysia it’s agriculture. I cannot speak for other member states, but most of us are agricultural. Vietnam is a net agricultural sector importer from MERCOSUR, and Malaysia will also import more corn, wheat, soy. So I think the agriculture sector is the most dynamic sector that can make full use of a free trade agreement. And of course Malaysia’s investment here in MERCOSUR is more in the energy sector. So we would like to have a business approach with MERCOSUR on this matter. I am currently taking over from Indonesia as the chairman of ASEAN Ambassadors here in Argentina until the end of this year. So we will be giving our approach more to raise the profile of ASEAN. On August 8, we’re organizing ASEAN day. 

What’s happening with projects such as halal certification in Argentina?

Halal certification is very important for us. Uruguay has started their halal certification aggressively. They just signed the MOU last year. They started a year ago with this, but they are already making progress. Our authorities went to slaughterhouses in Uruguay just two months ago and had quite good, positive results. We have also appointed a foreign halal certifier in Uruguay. So we would like Argentina also to be more aggressive with this. We’re going to organize a seminar on halal, tentatively in September. 

I have also proposed that Argentina seriously consider developing its own halal ecosystem zone, and Malaysia is willing to partner on that, because this would be the first in Latin America. So, we stand ready to become a partner for Argentina to develop this halal ecosystem.