Malaysian Mid-Tier Companies (MTCs) have shown resiliency in braving through the pandemic with creativity in managing the businesses. Pivoting the business focus to new areas of growth and addressing the ad-hoc demand very well in serving the markets have successfully resulted in emerging business opportunities during the global lockdown and converting into export transactions.
CEO of MATRADE, YBhg. Datuk Mohd Mustafa Abdul Aziz shared, “Our Malaysian MTCs have weathered the storm in 2021, despite multiple of lockdowns, disruption of supply chain, shortage of raw materials and manpower. They have successfully registered RM17.8 billion of export revenue, growing nearly 15% compared to previous year. The increase in exports in 2021 was valued at RM2.4 billion. Cumulatively, alumni of MTCDP recorded RM8.33 billion in increase of export revenue since 2015. This demonstrated the resiliency of the MTCs amidst the global challenges”. He added that MTCs have shown encouraging performance by creating more than 4,000 new jobs include skilled jobs like engineers and technical positions, showing another clear piece of evidence of their resiliency during the height of pandemic and job cuts were rife.
MATRADE continues to enrich the Mid-Tier Companies (MTCs) through their signature platform, MTCs CEO Summit 2022, with the theme “Strengthening Resilience, Powering Export Growth”. Hosted in partnership with Deloitte Consulting Sdn Bhd, MTCs CEO Summit 2022 brought together more than 150 CEOs of MTCs under the Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (MTCDP). This programme aims to empower the MTCs to leverage on new trends of digitalisation and sustainability to unlock more prospects in expanding their footprints globally.
The highlight of the Summit was Fireside Chat with CEOs, sharing session featuring MTCs and Experts on “Sailing Through Uncharted Waters”. The panellists comprised of representatives from CMC Engineering Sdn Bhd (MTCDP Alumni), Deloitte Consulting and a Digital Branding expert. They shared their thoughts, ideas and experience on sustainability, digitalisation and branding in strengthening the resilience and business growth. On top of the Fireside Chat, two (2) prominent experts have also shared notable pointers on how to turn sustainability into winning strategy as well as leveraging storytelling in marketing to enhance the global branding.
“MATRADE believes that three key factors will strengthen the resiliency of our MTCs, in preparing to the oncoming challenges in 2023. First, the MTCs should be able to explore new niche areas and diversify the market outreach. This to ensure the agility of the MTCs by pivoting into different types of market and industry. Secondly, the MTCs should immerse into digitalisation. Digitalisation has been the enabler and being pervasively used in improving productivity, communicate effectively and enhance the delivery of services. Finally, the MTCs should now be able to adopt sustainability practices to position their businesses at higher level of competitiveness. With these key factors, our Malaysian MTCs will be more competitive, dynamic and agile,” Datuk Mohd Mustafa added.
Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (MTCDP) started in 2014 as one of the Government’s high impact initiatives in the Malaysia’s Development Plan, aimed to accelerate the export growth of Mid-Tier Companies to be the regional and global champions. To boost the momentum of MTCs after completing MTCDP, Mid-Tier Ramp Up Programme was created in 2016 as the catalyst to accelerate exports’ penetration and enhance competitiveness of the MTCs to strengthen their footprints in the regional and global markets.
In line with the 12th Malaysia Plan, MATRADE will strive to create more export champions, supporting the ongoing efforts by the Government in regenerating Malaysian economy, driving the growth of new sectors while striking the balance to ensure the socio-economic inclusiveness and sustainability.
The MTCDP targets export-oriented MTCs with annual revenues between RM50 million to RM500 million for manufacturing companies and RM20 million to RM500 million for services companies. Interested companies are encouraged to contact [email protected] for more details.
