| Danial Norjidi |
DIRECTOR of Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) Sabah Noor Azian binti Romlan addressed the need for export promotion through avenues such as local and overseas events, trade fairs, trade and investment missions as well as market visits.
Delivering her keynote presentation on ‘The Basics: Building an Export-Oriented Business’, she highlighted what companies need to be ready to begin their export journey, beginning with internal factors pertaining to production, financial, human capital and marketing, as well as external factors of export requirements and compliance and legal.
She made these comments at a conference on ‘Tapping New Markets: Exporting for Growth’ as part of the launch for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Festival at the BRIDEX International Conference Centre yesterday.
The MATRADE Sabah Director also affirmed that there is a need to understand export requirements, develop an export plan, conduct research as well as prepare logistic and export documentation.
She underlined the importance of development for exporters themselves through seminars, conferences, workshops and training as well as informal learning and networking.
The conference continued with its first panel discussion on ‘Access to Markets’, which began with scene-setting remarks by Executive Director of Asian Trade Centre, Singapore Dr Deborah Elms on the practical export possibilities in ASEAN and beyond.
She joined a panel featuring CEO of Mindplus Edu Pengiran Mohd Khairi bin Pengiran Haji Metussin and CEO of Ghanim International Corporation Dr Nur Rahman to discuss overseas markets for Bruneian businesses.
The conference continued with a session on ‘Building a Strong Online Presence’, where a panel comprising CEO of 28Mall.com, Malaysia Fione Tan as well as CEO and founder of Nimanja Anderson Lim and CEO and founder of Rotuku Group of Companies Azri Jumat discussed strengthening export ability through an effective online strategy. The final session of the conference was divided into two parts.
The first of which was a conversation with CEO and co-founder of Christy Ng Shoes, Malaysia, Christy Ng on how she grew an enterprise through exporting, while the second part focussed on growing through internationalisation, featuring CEO and founder of Avantist Watches Keeran Janin from Brunei.