Annual Report 2017

14 MA T R A D E A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7 The Act outlined nine broad strategies for the nascent TPO but one bears repeating: To formulate and implement a national export marketing strategy to promote the export of manufactured and semi- manufactured products CEO’S STATEMENT 24 Years: A Look Back & Ahead It is July 1992. Malaysia’s North-South Expressway (NSE) is still more than two years away from completion but already it has had a transformational effect on the movement of goods, services and people all along its entire length. For the first time in the history of modern Malaysia, there now existed a vital piece of infrastructure that would serve as a national enabler and catalyst for people, commerce and trade. A northbound truck fromMalacca could now deliver goods to Penang in a matter of hours, a journey that would have otherwise taken the better part of an entire day or more just a few years earlier. Business executives in Kuala Lumpur could drive south to Senawang to examine progress on a factory site and be back in the office after lunch to deliver their findings. In short, the NSE accelerated the transactional pace of doing business, positively altered trading mindsets and attitudes and opened up new demand, markets and territories within our borders. It was also in July 1992 that Parliament gazetted Act 490, otherwise known as the MATRADE Act. Like the NSE, the establishment of MATRADE as Malaysia’s Trade Promotion Organisation (TPO) would also come to have an equally transformational effect on the business of export and trade. The Act outlined nine broad strategies for the nascent TPO but one bears repeating: To formulate and implement a national export marketing strategy to promote the export of manufactured and semi-manufactured products. It was fundamentally true 25 years ago and remains so to this day, bearing in mind that we have now added the export of services as a core focus. As MATRADE’s Chief Executive Officer, this year’s CEO’s Statement is unique. At the 24-year mark, it allows me to comment on how far we have come since 1992 as well as to carefully speculate as to what the next 25 years could mean for us as a global trading economy. Paraphrasing an old adage, 25 years may be a long time in politics but it is just a blink of an eye in terms of trade promotion. In the world of trade, change comes quickly and all stakeholders need to be prepared to embrace change. Fortunately, Malaysia has never shied away when it comes to making fundamental changes for the better.