Exploit Asean chair advantage: Musa
Published on: Thursday, July 30, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Malaysia should take advantage of its role as Chair of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to boost exports within the region. Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said that by so doing, Malaysian firms would be able to penetrate around 620 million consumers. He urged Sabah small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to also get "aggressively" involved in this goal.
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"Sabah entrepreneurs have the potential for exports given that assistance is provided by the Government in addition to the abundance of resources that could be turned into value-added products. "Firms here are also supported by the demands of services generated from the plantation, commerce and oil and gas sectors," he said. Musa's speech was read by Industrial Development Assistant Minister Datuk Bolkiah Ismail during the launching of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) Exporters Forum, here. At present, Sabah has 41,000 SMEs, a huge number considering the State is the sixth largest contributor to the national economy, and account for 16.9 per cent of the country's exports.
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Musa's urging would not have come at a better time as several of Malaysia's important trading partners such as China and Singapore are slashing Malaysian imports, despite the lower value of the Ringgit at present. In confirming this, Matrade said exports to China slipped 4.5 per cent between January and May this year compared to the corresponding period last year.
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Singapore, meanwhile, slipped 4.7 per cent over the same period. Matrade Senior Director Wan Latif Wan Musa said the declining figures have been largely caused by the impacts of the global economic outlook, 'not so much on the Ringgit.' He said Malaysian exports should have increased if the value of the country's currency had been lower, but instead the importing nations decided to enter into a 'comparative' mode in seeking products from elsewhere. "These developments have impacted the performance of the national exports," he said. Hence, it is in Malaysia's best interest to tap into the South East Asian mart. To do so, Musa stressed firms must have a firm grip on the use of ICT technologies to grab the mass market, as well as groomed to be export ready. According to him, the State government wanted Sabah firms to hit a 25 per cent contribution to national exports by 2020, adding that more firms are needed to break the export barrier. He said Matrade has several programmes to develop entrepreneurs and exporters to compete in the international arena. They include Going Export (Go-Ex), which was established to explore new markets and the oil and gas, food and beverage, lifestyle, electric and electronics, ICT and health care and the Mid-Tier programme to assist companies to penetrate new markets and access to financial support, technologies and services advice by international consultants. Musa noted the programme is dedicated to intermediate manufacturing companies with an annual sales of RM50 million to RM500 million. Matrade hoped that more Sabah firms would register with them to take part in these programmes. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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