by NURUL SUHAIDI / pic by TMR
MALAYSIA External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) and Deloitte Malaysia are committed to accelerate and boost Mid-Tier Companies’ (MTCs) export capabilities and country trade performance through its eighth edition of the Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (MTCDP).
Matrade CEO Datuk Mohd Mustafa Abdul Aziz (picture) said MTCs are critical to the strength of the Malaysian economy in spite of only 2% of registered business establishments.
“Deloitte through its global network and customise export support will complement one another to empower and outsource the company’s capability for exports productivity, especially for the high-impact sector,” he said.
Mustafa said the programme seeks to achieve a cumulative export increase of RM5 billion, which will be contributed by the 380 MTCs under the programme.
With a bigger objective, MTCDP stretched its mission not only to strengthen the global presence of MTCs, but to go beyond and benefit the whole micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Consortium of Mid-Tier Companies (MCMTC) president Callum Chen said, most, if not all of the mid-tier started as SMEs, before obtaining their mid-tier status, had a significant role toward strengthening the whole supply chain.
“Therefore, while we target to accelerate the high value sector, let’s not overlook the synergy of traditional homegrown business in a global marketplace,” Chen said.
(MTCDP) Wave 8, will involve 25 well-established MTCs that were selected to participate in a nine months programme aimed to increase their global competitiveness by focusing on sustainability and digitalisation.
Fourteen MTCs are from the manufacturing sector, and the rest are from the services sector.
The MTCDP targets export-oriented MTCs with annual revenues between RM50 million to RM500 million for manufacturing companies and RM20 million to RM500 million for services companies.
In addition, Deloitte Malaysia CEO Yee Wing Ping said Malaysia has shown resilience despite the constraint in the supply chain and continues to be very active in trade activities.
“In that regard, we remain optimistic to elevate the foreign-exchange activities for the country,” he said.
To date, the total trade in the country has already surpassed RM1 trillion in just the first five months of this year.
During the same period last year, trade climbed by 25.1% to RM1.09 trillion while exports jumped by 23.5% to RM593 billion.
Since its inception, MTCDP has successfully nurtured 275 Malaysian global champions from various sectors and industries.