The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has announced additional initiatives under the Market Development Grant (MDG) amidst Covid-19 to ensure Malaysian exporters remain resilient and can sustain themselves during this challenging period.
Mohd Mustafa Abdul Aziz, Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE, said “Malaysian SMEs have been very active in promoting their products and services globally through partnership with international buyers. Covid-19 pandemic has much affected their business health, including curtailing their exports’ growth.”
The Government, through MITI and its agency MATRADE, supports all SMEs’ efforts through the Market Development Grant (MDG), which was created in 2002 with the goal of improving export facilitation. Additional MDG initiatives are being launched to deal with this terrible situation as part of MATRADE ongoing efforts to sustain Malaysia’s SMEs in the global market.
The initiatives of MDG to cushion the impact of covid-19 on our SMEs exporters includes; addressing the increased cost for export, facilitating participation in virtual event such as international trade fairs and exhibitions locally and overseas, and addressing the loss due to cancellation or postponement of export promotion activities.
The initiative also covers International Certification registration for export, intellectual Property (IP) registration for international market; and branding and advertising for exports that include through digital platforms.
Notably since March 2020, MATRADE had assisted 1,350 Malaysian SME exporters with a total of 6,810 activities, covering industries including such as furniture, palm oil products, medical products, wood products, prepared foods, machinery and equipment as well as engineering services. RM2.6 billion of total export was reported by these SMEs during this period.
The assistance had enabled our SMEs to export their products in markets including Japan, South Korea, People’s Republic of China, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, The Philippines, Canada, France, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
MATRADE urged more SMEs exporters to come forward and be part of the programme. These MDG’s initiatives will commence from July 15 2021 until end of this year. SMEs are urged to register with MATRADE as members, to involve more in MATRADE’s export promotion programmes.
The membership is complimentary and registration can be via www.matrade.gov.my.
