Malaysia has exceeded its expectations of trade and business leads garnered at Expo 2020 Dubai, giving confidence for its industries to get the much-needed boost to reset their businesses.

Shamsul BaharMohd Nor, Chief Executive of the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation (MGTC) said the World Expo has proven to provide countries a robust platform to reboot their economies after disruptions caused by the global pandemic.

“The Expo has shown us that countries are eager to collaborate for trade and businesses, and our companies are well-received by their foreign counterparts,” he said.

He added that following the emergence of Covid-19, Malaysia had relooked at its participation at the global event with a new strategy for its economic recovery.

“We set out with a goal at Expo 2020 Dubai to aggressively provide an opening for our industries to access global trade as our national economy progressively recovers,” he said.

Malaysia’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai is spearheaded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia with MGTC as its implementing agency.

The Malaysia Pavilion’s 26 weekly thematic trade and businesses programmes is strongly supported and participated by 21 ministries, 70 agencies, five state governments, and about 300 companies.

“Halfway through the Expo we managed to secure over USD8.38 billion (RM33.9 billion) in potential returns on trade and investments with the global business community.

“These were achieved through 654 business leads and 50 partnership agreements signed during the Expo thus far. It has well exceeded our initial target of between RM8 billion and RM10 billion in business leads and 20 Memorandums of Understanding signed,” Shamsul continued.

He added that Malaysia also successfully held a number of events and programmes to connect with business delegates and visitors at the Expo as the country’s participation was regarded as a national interest.

“We are pleased to have the strong support and partnership of industry leaders including our platinum premier partner, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, and our premier partners Petronas and SerbaDinamik.

“We also have our café operators Marrybrown and Nur Malaysia, our industry partner Julie’s, logistics partner UPS, technology partner Fusionex, corporate partner Claytan, and creative partners Studio Birthplace, Monsta, R&D Studios and Digital Durian, each of whom played pivotal roles in our success in presenting what Malaysia has to offer to the world at Expo 2020 Dubai,” he said.

With Expo 2020 Dubai still ongoing until the end of March 2022, Shamsul Bahar said Malaysia is positively looking forward to generating more business leads for its homegrown companies.

“In line with our national character of ‘Keluarga Malaysia’ (the Malaysian Family), we advocate the spirit of working together as one world family to create a more prosperous future for all.

“The outcomes of our participation thus far have reaffirmed our confidence in this historical Expo to open up more frontiers for connectivity. The relationships created here will forge lasting possibilities for the world’s sustainable recovery and growth,” he added.