MSE2012 Successfully Achieves Objective In Qatar

From Mohd Khairi Idham Amran DOHA (Qatar), May 4 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Services Exhibition 2012 (MSE 2012) closed its doors on Thursday, successfully achieving its objective of promoting Malaysian construction capabilities to the Qatar market. Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) senior manager Aaron Abdullah said participants at the four-day exhibition, which began on April 30, received more than 1,000 enquiries from interested parties in Qatar. "Since its opening, we have received tremendous response from foreign trade visitors to the Malaysian pavillion. "Some of the exhibitors have even identified distributors and potential partners here," he told reporters on the sidelines of the MSE 2012. He said Matrade is planning to organise more such events in the future with the possibility of returning to Doha in May next year due to the success of the latest exhibition. With the continuous presence through events such as the MSE, Aaron hoped it would create a higher level of confidence amongst local businessmen and Malaysian companies. "Moving forward, we are going to organise more MSEs in different sectors," he said. According to Aaron, Beijing is hosting the next MSE for franchise sector this month, Chengdu was also chosen as the destination for the exhibition this year while Dubai was in the pipeline for next year. The MSE 2012 was held in conjunction with Qatar's ninth International Construction Technology and Building Materials Exhibition, also known as Project Qatar. The event was aimed at capturing the opportunities in construction and related industry in Qatar, that would host World Cup 2022, estimated at US$200 billion. Meanwhile, participants at the MSE 2012 felt the decision to organise the exhibition during Project Qatar made it more vibrant and attracted more quality visitors to the pavillion. Malaysian Timber Council Dubai director Khairul Anwar said the exhibition unveiled a lot of potential for Malaysian timber product exporters. "MSE has done a good job in creating awareness for our Malaysian products," he said, citing that such events should be organised more frequently to capture the interest of buyers here. Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia corporate division senior manager Sazali Che Amat said participants in the construction industry at MSE 2012 had received many enquiries from interested parties in Qatar. "The next step, we are going to organise business networking between the stakeholders here (in Qatar) and Malaysia. "Perhaps in the years to come, we will do a lot more business networking activities between our construction companies and the companies here," he said. -- BERNAMA