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375643
Wed, 07/29/2015 - 13:08
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Companies, Entreprenuers Urged To Register As Exporters With Matrade

KOTA KINABALU (Sabah, Malaysia), July 29 (Bernama) -- East Malaysia's Sabah state Chief Minister Musa Aman has urged companies and entrepreneurs to register as exporters with the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (MATRADE). Musa, who is also Sabah Finance Minister, said they should also participate in MATRADE's trade promotion programmes. "These businesses should not rely on the local market alone but also venture into the overseas markets. "I understand that there are many companies and entrepreneurs with great potentials in Sabah who are not yet registered as exporters with MATRADE. "The small and medium enerrprises (SMEs) are an important component of the national economy and trade and must be developed effectively," Musa said at the Sabah State Level Exporters' Forum 2015 here Wednesday. The text of his speech was read by Assistant Minister of Industrial Development, Bolkiah Ismail. Musa said the trade promotion and exporters development activities should prove to be effective for local companies and professional services to maintain exports and as ASEAN chairman this year, this could could be a strong influence on products and local services to penetrate the 620 million people market in ASEAN. He said Sabah is the country's sixth largest contributor to the national economy. Sabah is one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. "The 14,000 SMEs in Sabah must take advantage of the wide market to promote their goods and services more effectively. They should also maximise the use of information and communication technology (ICT) so that they are not left behind," he said. Musa said MATRADE has several programmes for local businesses to compete in the international market such as Going Export (Go-Ex). "Go-Ex was established to explore new markets and existing oil and gas, food and beverage, lifestyle, electric and electronics, ICT, healthcare, automotive and building materials markets," he said. Musa said Mid-Tier was another programme for intermediate companies with annual sales turnover of between US$13.12 million (RM50 million) and US$RM500 million from the manufacturing sector and between RM20 million and RM500 million for other sectors. (US$1 = RM3.80) "This is to help the companies penetrate new markets and have access to financing, new technologies and advice from our international consultants in MATRADE," he said. Musa said recognising the great potentials of the e-commerce platform and the borderless SME products and services, MATRADE introduced e-TRADE in October last year. "We are offering financial incentives for SMEs who are listed in the international online markets such as Alibaba.com and eBay. "I hope entrepreneurs from Sabah will apply for the incentives under the programme and be actively involved in the e-commerce business arena and expand their markets," he said. -- BERNAMA

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