PETALING JAYA: Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and mid-tier companies are urged to fully leverage on the perks announced in Budget 2020.
This can be done through incorporating export plan in their business strategy or enhancing their readily-available export plan for 2020 and beyond, according to Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade).
Local companies will enjoy more benefits from Matrade’s Market Development Grant (MDG) and export promotion efforts following the increment of the claim ceiling per company for the MDG, from the current RM200,000 to RM300,000.
The ceiling for the participation in international trade fairs will also be revised upwards from RM15,000 to RM25,000.
The government will also allocate RM50 million to encourage SMEs to engage in more export promotion activities.
Matrade CEO Datuk Wan Latiff Wan Musa opined that the move is a strong indication of the government’s aspiration to develop more global champions among Malaysian exporters.
“Matrade is optimistic that the allocation will be a catalyst to facilitate the access of local companies to not only markets such as Asean, China and the US but to emerging markets too, such as Central and South Asia, West Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is indeed a great news for Malaysia’s export community and Matrade will be the engine to mobilise its resources in helping Malaysian companies realise their export sales,” he said.
Moving into 2020, Matrade noted that it will focus on its export promotion activities on emerging high-value sectors such as aerospace, automotive, medical devices, halal, creative content, e-commerce and services, among others.
“It is imperative for us to expand Malaysia’s export capabilities in more areas other than conventional sectors like food & beverages or furniture. Promotion in these sectors will be continued still, but will be centred around more niche areas such as manufacturing services and design engineering. This is in line with our strategy to diversify Malaysia’s top exported products too,” he added.
