The October event will feature a hybrid model, allowing some exhibitions and conferences to be held both physically and virtually

by AFIQ AZIZ / pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

THE Selangor government is looking to bring in foreign participants and investors to the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) this year.

State executive councillor for investment, industry and commerce, and small and medium enterpises Datuk Teng Chang Khim (picture) said the October event will feature a hybrid model, allowing some exhibitions and conferences to be held both physically and virtually.

Last year, the summit was held fully online due to movement restrictions and travel bans.

However, Teng said, physical interactions are vital to ensure a higher success rate of SIBS, which aims to attract more than 840 booth registrations and 15,000 trade visitors from over 24 countries for the four-day summit.

Last year, due to the limitation of virtual SIBS 2020, the prime mover of the summit, Invest Selangor Bhd faced some difficulties to obtain an exact value transacted.

Teng said the transacted value for 2020 went downward to RM109 million, although the virtual edition managed to attract almost 178,000 online attendees from 54 countries.

The value is half of the RM247 million transacted during SIBS 2019.

To ensure the success of SIBS this year, Teng said the state government is currently working with federal agency Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) to assist in mitigating inward business travel restrictions, especially for investors who wish to visit Malaysia through the Mida Safe Travel Portal.

The system provides all the information and services to facilitate both short- and long-term business travellers’ entry into Malaysia.

“Through this initiative, short-term travellers may be exempted from mandatory quarantine upon approval by the One-Stop Centre (OSC) committee.

“This initiative ensures that Malaysia remains open for business visits while balancing public health and livelihoods,” Teng said at the soft launch of SIBS 2021 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“Hopefully with physical participation this year, we can have more accurate figures,” he added.

Last year, Selangor topped the list for the best investment destination in Malaysia, with approved investments amounting to RM38.7 billion.

Of the total value, RM18.4 billion is from the manufacturing sector with 324 manufacturing projects approved.

Teng noted that foreign participation in SIBS will benefit Selangor’s investment agenda, but the matter will be fully dependent on approvals from Mida and OSC, which are subject to the Covid-19 situation.

“At the moment, we are relying on the local business community to take part in this event, to which some of them have already registered,” he added.

On Selangor’s investment outlook, Teng remains cautious as the international travel ban is still in force.

“We have topped the list for manufacturing investment for three consecutive years. It must be noted that this did not come because of luck, but hard work in the past years with multiple trade missions,” he said.

The summit, which will be held from Oct 7 to Oct 10, will continue its previous sessions of Selangor International Expo (F&B), Selangor Asean Business Conference, Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention, and Selangor R&D and Innovation Expo.