MATRADE Holds Talk on Financial Assistance & Business Coaching for Bumiputera Business Community
Wednesday, 24th February , 2016, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) with the support of the Malay Traders & Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia (PERDASAMA) and the Association of Manufacturers & Industry (PPIPBM) held a seminar titled "TradeTalk @ MATRADE: Financing Schemes and Business Coaching Programme for Bumiputera Business Community" at Menara MATRADE today.
The seminar was aimed at spreading the awareness on the available export financial assistance as well as on export guidance for Malaysian SMEs.
The first segment of the event was on financing scheme and the topics featured included financial assistance from MATRADE via its eTRADE Programme, Market Development Grant (MDG), Services Export Fund (SEF) and financial assistance from other organisations such as the Soft Loan Scheme for Services (SLSSE) by MIDF and Malaysia-Singapore Third Country Business Development Fund.
The second segment of the talk was on Export Coaching that highlighted MATRADE’s high impact programmes for Malaysian exporters namely the Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (for Mid-Tier companies), Go-Ex (to improve market penetration for SMEs) and New Exporters Development Programme (to groom Malaysian companies to be global champions).
At the event, the New Exporters Development Programme received the most attention. The programme offers counselling session for a period of three years where Bumiputera-owned companies, Women and Youth will spend 45 hours in export training. The objectives of the programme, apart from creating more export talents, is to push the participants to market their products or services to at least two export destinations and to increase their export sales by 20%.
At the talk, MATRADE emphasised on adopting e-commerce as a vehicle to export for Bumiputera SMEs. MATRADE’s Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Dzulkifli Mahmud said, “Via e-commerce, companies can reach out to millions of potential buyers from around the world by utilising e-marketplaces such as Alibaba.com, TradeIndia.com, Amazon.com, eBay.com, JD.com, Suning.com and KJT.com. Export via online platform is also very cost-effective and through our eTRADE Programme, companies get the opportunity to enjoy an e-voucher up to RM2,500 to pay for their membership fee.â€
MATRADE encourages Malaysian companies to register as a MATRADE member to be the first to join any of MATRADE’s activities. This year, MATRADE plans a total of 150 programmes, of which 85 are export promotion activities and 65 are exporters development programmes. Interested companies can visit MATRADE’s Integrated Center for Export (ICE) at Level 2 of Menara MATRADE to seek guidance and collate export-related information. The centre is open every Wednesdays and Thursdays.
