Due to Covid-19 the robust Selangor International Business Summit or SIBS which is held every year showcasing the best of what Selangor has to offer in regards to business opportunity had gone online. The scheduled event usually draws thousands of participants and commerce ventures for the state, having since moved on to a virtual platform SIBS 2020 still managed to attract 170,000 visitors and even had to extend the event by another three days.
Chief Minister, YAB Dato’ Seri Amirudin bin Shari who launched the event was pleasantly pleased with the setup and organisation while commending on the observation to the new norms due to the current health concern. The 7 day event attracted more 2400 visitors from 54 participating countries, tuning in to gather insightful knowledge shared by high-calibre speakers and cross-border networking opportunities.
SIBS 2020 lured 51 inspiring speakers, 286 exhibitors and a total of 282 business matchings worth RM1,093,457.00.
This year the annual event hopes to bring global brands in one spot where industry players can congregate and look at ways to help business players reset and reboot, deliver networking and business matching sessions for all visitors to benefit.
The Virtual SIBS 2020 had three main components, the first being the Selangor International Expo (SIE), an F&B trade expo featuring exhibitors from countries like Indonesia, Philippines, India, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand, Italy and Malaysia.
Meanwhile the second component, the Selangor ASEAN Business Conference (SABC), brought together prominent speakers, business leaders, trade related associations as well as trade policy developers from multiple and diverse background and economic sectors from ASEAN and its partner countries.
As for the third component, The Smart City and Digital Economy Convention (SDEC) also organised its Startups Showcase 2020 where SMEs and Corporations took the opportunity to combine and discover the new strategies and solutions in order to continue gain and improved investment growth. The Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards is a prestigious award that seeks to reward the most successful, creative and innovative homegrown e-merchants.
“SIBS is our continuous effort to transform Selangor into a global trading hub, with the emphasis on the region as a market with over 640 million population and home to some 200 of the world’s largest companies and I am confident that Selangor will continue to offer the best value proposition as an ideal home for companies penetrating beyond Malaysia and into the ASEAN market,” said YB Dato’ Teng.
Virtual SIBS 2020 will continue from 2020 to 2021, giving entrepreneurs a longer timeframe on the platform to continue doing business. The state government is planning to return to hybrid event with more excitement from 7 – 10 October 2021, if the situation of the pandemic gets better.
