Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has recently announced a new initiative to help boost the nation’s economy amidst the post-Covid-19 recovery period. Under said initiative, the Market Development Grant (MDG) under the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) now has a value-added criteria to help SMEs boost their sales in markets beyond Malaysia.
Deputy Minister Datuk Lim Ban Hong said the criteria includes allowing applications for reimbursements of expenditures for participation in virtual international trade exhibitions, as well as business meetings through virtual trade missions.
Additionally, local SMEs will be able to leverage the MDG to reimburse the expenses incurred due to cancellations or postponements of trade events.
This particular facilitation covers the cost borne by SMEs such as non-refundable participation fees, airfares and accommodations of up to RM25,000 per claim.
Due to Covid-19, the global supply chain has been broken. To this day, it has yet to fully recover as shipment sizes are reduced as a result of stringent safety precautions or low production. The MDG seeks to mitigate this issue through the reimbursement of logistics costs incurred by the SMEs.
Said temporary relief will allow for the reimbursement of up to 30 percent of logistics cost or up to RM15,000 per shipment; including cost of transportation, warehousing, and freight.
“While the pandemic has affected various trade exhibitions held globally, local businesses should not miss out on the opportunities to sell their products or services abroad, and they can still do so via digital means. This will definitely make them more agile in responding to global markets situations,” Lim said in a statement.
To date, the MDG has assisted 23,937 Malaysian exporters to promote local products and services globally and a total of RM388.7 million has been disbursed to support these SMEs.
For the past five years, SMEs that benefited from the grant have reported an accumulative export sales of RM8.72 billion.
“The MDG will undoubtedly support the country’s economic recovery by ensuring local SMEs can continue to export in the current economic climate. I hope more companies will utilise the grant to ramp up their exports during this challenging time,” Lim said.
