Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2018, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) calls upon Malaysian companies particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to boost their engagements with the Government agencies such as MATRADE and utilise the financial assistances available to help their export business.

In this regard, MATRADE organised a seminar titled “How to Leverage on the Financial Assistance Provided by MATRADE”. The event is timely to enhance the SMEs awareness on MATRADE’s financial assistance especially because financial constraint has been identified as one of the key issues hindering SMEs from international expansion. The seminar was attended by over 190 participants from various industries including business services.

MATRADE provides financial assistance through its various initiatives such as the Market Development Grant (MDG), Services Export Fund (SEF) and eTRADE, among others. MATRADE’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Puan Sharimahton Mat Saleh said MATRADE regularly conducts engagement to promote its financial assistances. However, there are still a number of companies who are unaware of the assistances. “The offerings are in the form of reimbursable grant or fund and some are paired with handholding activities aimed at building the SMEs ability and skills in exporting,” she said.

One of MATRADE’s most popular financial assistance is the Market Development Grant (MDG). It is a scheme to assist SMEs, service providers, trade and industry associations, chambers of commerce and professional bodies to undertake export promotion activities. Companies can apply for a reimbursable grant based on the eligible export promotional activities up to a ceiling of RM200,000. To date, the MDG has benefitted 7,811 Malaysian companies that have penetrated markets such as ASEAN, China, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Turkey and Japan, just to name a few.

Apart from the MDG, companies in the services sector can apply for MATRADE’s Services Export Fund (SEF). It is a financial assistance introduced in 2015 in collaboration with Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad (MIDF) to assist Malaysian services providers expand internationally. The assistance is in the form of reimbursable grants and soft loans up to RM5 million per company. The SEF has assisted 88 Malaysian companies in industries such as education & training, oil & gas services, engineering services, ICT and e-commerce solutions, among others.

Other programmes by MATRADE that offer financial assistance include the GoEx Programme, Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (MTCDP) and Bumiputera, Women & Youth Exporters Development Programme (BWYEDP). For more information on these assistances companies may visit www.matrade.gov.my or email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..