KUCHING: The Sarawak-China Business Forum 2018 scheduled to be held from August 6- 7 here is one of the initiatives by the International Trade and E-Commerce Ministry to promote trade between both parties.
Its minister, Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said the forum aimed to become the Sarawak-China Regulatory Business platform where participants could gain knowledge and get better understanding in doing trade with both entities.
“The programme is targeted to benefit about 500 entrepreneurs from both the state and country who intend to do trading,” he said in his winding up speech during the State Legislative Assembly sitting here yesterday.
He said as of June this year, the ministry had participated in four trade fairs in Kuala Lumpur, namely, Export Furniture Expo (EFE), Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS), Malaysia Online Business Expo (MOBE) and
Malaysia International Food and Beverage Trade Fair (MIFB 2018).
“The events have benefited 18 local entrepreneurs from various sectors. Another four local entrepreneurs will exhibit their products under the Malaysian Pavilion in the coming BIMP-EAGA IMT-GT Trade Expo, Conference and Business Matching 2018 to be held in Hatyai, Thailand from July 19-22, 2018.
“The ministry will consistently enlist more local SMEs or entrepreneurs to participate in both domestic and international trade fairs,” he pointed out.
Wong said in the meantime, the ministry had also participated in two trade fairs at the invitation of the Provincial Government of China, namely, the 12th China (Henan) International Investment and Trade Fair (April 16-19, 2018) and the 25th China Kunming Import and Export Fair (June 13-19, 2018).
“Both trade fairs have been a good exposure and experience for MITeC on ways and approaches of reaching out to the international market and networking with global players,”he added.
Wong disclosed that MATRADE had organised 28 trade promotion programmes both locally and internationally for the past six months.
“The programmes are international trade fairs, export acceleration missions, trade missions, international sourcing programmes and joint promotion activities, benefiting more than 1000 Malaysian companies. Of that number, 80 are Sarawak based companies that participated in international events,” he added. He added that Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) had assisted local furniture vendors and SMEs to participate in five expositions and business matching programmes in Kuala Lumpur, Brunei, Dubai and two in India.
“Sales worth RM28 million were recorded and a lot of trade enquiries were received by participants of these events,” he revealed.
