Market Herbal Products Abroad - Deputy Minister

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia), July 12 (Bernama) -- Local herbal product entrepreneurs should explore overseas markets, said Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Hassan Malek. He said this was to prove the capability of Malaysians in manufacturing herbal products from plants such as sandalwood and tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia), apart from introducing the products to people abroad. "As we all know, our rubber tree was from Brazil while oil palm was from West Africa. The plants were brought to Malaysia and we have successfully made products from them, which are well-known worldwide. "This is the capability of Malaysians in turning out products from the plants. If they can do this, what more with plants that are from home," said Hassan after opening the 'Asia-Pacific Aesthetics, Spa and Wellness Business Conference and Exhibition 2012' here Wednesday. He said numerous approaches were carried out by his ministry, via Mara, a government agency, to help entrepreneurs promote their products. "Today, through Mida (Malaysian Investment Development Authority) and Matrade (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation), we go abroad to promote Malaysian products and invite foreign investors to come to Malaysia," he said. However, Hassan noted, a new approach was taken with Wednesday's programme by giving room to entrepreneurs to learn knowledge related to business and seek opportunities to promote their products abroad. "The entrepreneurs will incur high costs if they want to go abroad, so with the programme, they can seek out contacts, for example, through Matrade, to market their products abroad," he clarified. On the response abroad to products from Malaysian plants, he said it was encouraging and gave the example of sandalwood from Rompin, in Peninsular Malaysia's east coast state of Pahang which was getting good response in Saudi Arabia. -- BERNAMA