Matrade Maritime Marketing Mission To S'pore Rakes In US$5 Mln In Potential Sales

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, March 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia External Trade Development Corp's (Matrade) inaugural Maritime Marketing Mission to Singapore is a success, said its Trade Commissioner for Singapore Naim Abdul Rahman. "The mission, held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Maritime (APM) 2012, a three-day exhibition and conference which ended yesterday, recorded US$5 million in potential sales for shipbuilding and ship repairing/conversion," he told Bernama. Matrade led a 15-member delegation of maritime companies, including eight exhibitors, to APM 2012. The Malaysian delegation comprises members of Association of Marine Industries of Malaysia and Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology. Naim said Malaysian companies were satisfied with the arrangements made by Matrade, which included the inaugural networking between Malaysia and Singapore maritime industry players; one-to-one business meetings; and, visit to Singapore's offshore engineering and marine facilities. Over 40 business meetings were arranged for Malaysian delegates with Singapore counterparts, he said. "The Malaysian companies are also satisfied with the quality of the Singapore companies which participated in the networking and business meetings," he said. There are over 5,000 establishments/players involved in Singapore maritime industry, consisting of shipping & port related services; offshore, shipbuilding and ship repairing; and marine services. Naim said Matrade mounted this mission to tap Singapore's vast maritime network. "Matrade will continue to help Malaysian companies to do the follow-up and realise this potential with their Singapore counterparts," he said. -- BERNAMA