KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) is collaborating with Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to promote business partnerships between local companies and counterparts in the 56 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) nations.
The national trade promotion agency said the reverse linkage (RL), an area of coverage under a Memorandum of Understanding between IsDB and the Ministry of Finance was based on three main pillars – social development, infrastructure development and industrial needs.
“The RL aims to provide partnership opportunities among the countries in need of assistance in terms of technical expertise and experience sharing in various economic sectors, and through this, companies will have the opportunity to access the OIC market of 1.8 billion people,” it said in a statement yesterday.
Matrade chief executive officer Datuk Wan Latiff Wan Musa said the agency viewed the collaboration with IsDB as strategic in helping the development of the OIC countries.
“We are fully supportive of this collaboration as we believe in mutual benefits…this effort will boost the respective countries’ economic well-being through partnerships that are driven by complementing capabilities.
“We hope our counterparts in the OIC will benefit from working with Malaysian partners through the RL initiatives,” Wan Latiff said at a workshop on Mapping Malaysia’s Resource Centres (MMRC) jointly held with IsDB yesterday.
The MMRC, one of the initiatives under the RL, is a directory of Malaysian service providers and product suppliers. It will feature companies from 14 Malaysian key sectors including aerospace; construction and infrastructure; education; Islamic finance; halal, logistics and transportation; and oil and gas.
“The directory is scheduled to be launch in February 2020 and will be distributed by IsDB to stakeholders in the OIC member countries. – Bernama
