Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to Develop Rubber City

The world’s top producers of natural rubber (i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) are committed to strengthening collaboration to develop Rubber City in the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) region to boost rubber consumption and promote downstream industry development.

Firdaus Dahlan, Director of Centre for Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle Sub-regional Cooperation (CIMT), said the four Rubber City sites – Kedah in Malaysia, Songkhla (Southern Thailand), Tanjung Api-Api (Southern Sumatra) and Sei Mangkei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simalungun, North Sumatera, Indonesia would venture into downstream activities and manufacture of value-added products.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are the leading producers of natural rubber to the world market and most of the rubber plantations and production are in the IMT-GT area. The three countries need to strengthen collaboration to boost domestic rubber consumption and stabilize the rubber price in the global market.

“We will establish Project Implementation Team soon. It will be led by the private sector and facilitated by the governments to explore opportunities in downstream rubber industry in the IMT-GT region,” he told Bernama.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand collectively account for 66% of the global natural rubber production. In April this year, the three countries agreed to cut the natural rubber exports by 240kt over four months.