Seven focus areas in this year's Sabah Expo
Published on: Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah International Exposition (SIE) will feature fewer booths this year compared to two years ago but is not expected to be any less robust with the organisers looking for more quality than quantity among participants.Organising Chairman Datuk Mohd Basri Abd Gafar said the SIE2016 will be focusing on seven major areas namely green technology, agriculture and fisheries, manufacturing, real estate, food and beverage, services and tourism and oil and gas.It will feature 145 booths from 20 countries, mainly Bimp-Eaga members, and is hoping to pull more than 30,000 visitors from all over the State as well as from outside the State.
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"In previous years we have been promoting the event as 'Sabah to the world' kind of event. But this year, with more participation from Bimp-Eaga countries, particularly, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines, it is more lie 'Bimp-Eaga to the world'," he said during a press conference here, Tuesday.Basri did not deny that the lower number of booths was also due to the economic downturn that had bogged down the market the past few years."However, we are optimistic that visitors will have plenty to see and we have arranged for various types of industries to be featured during the four-day event," he said.
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The SIE is Sabah's Premier Trade Fair and a Sabah State Government sanctioned biennial event held with the main objective of providing a platform for exhibitors from near and far to meet, establishing business contacts as well as showcasing latest products and services from the Bimp-Eaga specifically and Asean broadly.Themed 'Sabah - Hub for the Far East', SIE2016 aims to attract commercial and economic interest to Sabah.
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"Sabah's abundant natural resources and proximity to the region's economic powerhouse such as China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia and the strength of the 60-million customer market in the Bimp-Eaga make this State an excellent and ideal trading hub in the South East Asia," said Basri.The event's launching ceremony as well as dinner with exhibitors will be held on Sept 14.The most exciting part of the expo, as in previous expos, would be the Sabah International Business Luncheon Talk (SIBLT2016), set to be held on Sept 15."Our guest speaker will be the new Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Officer Peter Bellew, a veteran in the tourism and aviation industry with over 30 years of experience in the related fields. He will be talking about tourism and transportation," he said.SIBLT2016 expects an audience of 500 business leaders, policy makers, investors, CEOs and diplomats from all over the world. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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