BRITISH High Commissioner Charles Hay
(pic) had his work cut out for him when he began his posting to Malaysia on a high note in March 2019.
He made elaborate preparations, even taking up Bahasa Malaysia lessons to better interact with Malaysians.
His promising start was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic last year, but the father of two daughters who was a Captain in the British Army before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 used his vast experience to make his presence count.
He focused his efforts on helping British businesses navigate the movement control order (MCO) restrictions imposed by the Malaysian government.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) has launched its new enhanced Guidelines for Services Export Fund (SEF) and three new activities to enhance the exports of service
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s export rose 6.6% year-on-year (yoy) to RM89.63 billion in January 2021, the highest for the month of January thus far, while.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
There’s been much agitation and kopitiam talk about reports that Malaysia is falling behind its regional neighbours in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), including supposedly losing out on key strategic investments.
Some point to a June 2020 United Nations Conference on Trade & Development as the basis for the grim talk: “Foreign direct investment to developing economies in Asia . is projected to decline by up to 45% in 2020”. The report also highlighted that Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam received more than 80% of the US$156bil (RM626.7bil) in FDI that Asean countries pulled in 2020. Only 5%, or just US$7.8bil (RM31.3bil), went to Malaysia – which of course doesn’t seem to augur well for us.
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 29): Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (MATRADE) will engage with 13,000 Malaysian companies through its exporters development (ED) and export promotion (EP) programmes to help boost exports.
In a statement today, MATRADE said that it had outlined 334 programmes in 2021; of these 277 are ED programmes and 57 are EP programmes.
It explained that the programmes are focused on the creation of more export champions in high-value sectors, with the utilisation of digital platforms, inclusiveness, tapping on current trends and the formation of strategic collaborations
Specifically, the ED programmes focus on equipping companies with the skills to develop a strategic advantage and promote sustainability values under the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.