OFFICIATING GOOGLE PROMOTION EXPORT EVENT

SPEECH

YB DATO' MUKHRIZ MAHATHIR

DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY

OFFICIATING GOOGLE PROMOTION EXPORT EVENT

15^TH DECEMBER 2010 (WEDNESDAY)

KL HILTON HOTEL

Assalamualaikum W.B.T and Salam 1Malaysia.

Ms. Aliza Knox,

Regional Managing Director of Online Sales for JAPAC, Google;

Mr. Elias Ghanem,

General Manager for Southeast Asia & India, Paypal;

Distinguished Guest;

Members of the Media;

Ladies and Gentleman,

1. First and foremost, I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to deliver this address at today's 'ThinkEXPORT with Google' event.

2. This theme of 'ThinkEXPORT' is indeed apt considering the importance of exports to the Malaysian economy. Malaysia is an open economy with international trade accounting for twice the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Exports alone account for 110 per cent of the country's GDP. Malaysia is ranked amongst the top thirty most active trading economies in the world.

3. Malaysia's total trade crossed the RM1 trillion mark in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The global economic downturn in 2009 resulted in total trade slipping to RM988 billion. However, projections are that Malaysia’s total trade figure will again surpass the RM1 trillion mark this year following the gradual recovery in the global economy. Malaysia’s total trade for the latest available period, January to October 2010 was RM967.58 billion, with exports valued at RM529.56 billion and imports valued at RM438.02 billion.

4. For the period of January to October 2010, Malaysia’s total exports increased by 18.1 per cent when compared with the corresponding period in 2009.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

5. Malaysia continues to be a net exporter nation registering a positive net trade balance for the past 156 consecutive months as of October 2010. In 2009 when exports were affected by the slowdown in the global economy Malaysia still managed to register a trade surplus of RM118.35 billion.

6. The export sector also contributes to the economy through employment generation. A significant proportion of employment in industries such as electrical and electronics, furniture, textiles and garments are generated by the demand created by the export sector. In 2009, the manufacturing sector alone contributed 74.4 per cent to Malaysia’s total export, generating 28.4 per cent or 943,586 employments. The services sector such as education, healthcare and information and communications technology, an increasing proportion of employment in Malaysia is also linked to the export sector. In 2009, the services sector contributed 57.3 per cent or 6.3 million employment with exports worth of RM98.9 billion.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

7. In view of the importance of trade to the Malaysian economy, the government has implemented several ICT based measures to enhance trade facilitation. ICT and E-Commerce are seen as important enablers to improve the public sector’s delivery system through:

· Allowing the simplification, standardization and harmonization of existing Government processes and procedures;

· Providing greater transparency to public sector processes;

· Facilitating Business Process Reengineering by identifying and removing unnecessary or out-dated procedures and regulatory processes; and

· Using the electronic platform to make it easier for the public to transact services with the government institutions.

8. E-Commerce can benefit businesses and consumers in Malaysia through:

· Opening up worldwide access to businesses and offering greater choice to consumers;

· Enhancing competitiveness and quality of service through adoption of ICT based applications;

· Customization and personalized products and services to consumers;

· Eliminating intermediaries and providing product availability;

· Enabling greater efficiency and lower costs; and

· Creating new business opportunities and new products and services beyond physical borders.

9. In the case of Malaysia, initiatives like the National Single Window (NSW) for Trade Facilitation, or also known as MyTradelink, is an electronic system that enables a secure, safe and efficient exchange of trade-related documents via a single point of entry. This is envisaged to further expedite the smooth flow of information pertaining to goods which are either for export, import or transit.

10. Five core services of the National Single Window have been operationalised since 19 November 2009 and are available through the MyTradelink online portal. These services are e-Declare, e-Permit, e-Payment, e-Preferential Certificate of Origin (e-PCO) and e-Manifest.

11. At the regional level, the ASEAN Member States (AMS) are working towards establishing the ASEAN Single Window (ASW). The ASW is an environment where the National Single Window of ASEAN Member States will operate and integrate electronically. Currently, 2 documents have been identified to be exchanged electronically through the ASW. They are:

· Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Form D preferential Certificate of Origin; and

· ASEAN Customs Declaration Document (ACDD), which contains common Customs data elements for ASEAN Member States.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

12. Dependence on exports and the openness of the economy, however, also makes the economy vulnerable to external shocks. In this regard, efforts have been made to firstly diversify Malaysia’s export markets through export market promotion programmes. The proportion of Malaysian exports to fast growing economies such as China, India and the Middle East region have also continued to grow in recent years.

13. It is important for Malaysian exporters to be in sync with the changing global demand structure. For example, sustainable and energy efficient products will constitute an increasing portion of future demand and Malaysian exporters should prepare themselves for these changes in the marketplace.

14. Innovation will be among the key drivers for sustainable export performance in the years ahead. Innovation would take the form of both product and process innovation. Ideally, product innovation would involve the incorporation of new technology and materials with the latest creative designs to meet changing market requirements.

15. Efforts to reinforce the image and reputation in the global market through branding and product and service differentiation are also crucial. Malaysian exporters also need to tap into new market segments to further expand their market share by employing ICT and adding e-commerce as another line of business in line with the changing trends. As such, the participation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in export activities can be further facilitated by e-commerce, considering SMEs make up about 99 per cent of all Malaysian business enterprises.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

16. The services sector is also an increasingly important contributor to exports. Services that Malaysian companies have already started exporting include educational services, healthcare services, construction and related services, as well as oil and gas services. The banking and insurance, logistics and information technology sectors have been facilitating other sectors of the economy including the manufacturing sector.

Honorable Guests,

17. Going global, requires exporters to be familiar with doing business as well as understanding the business culture in different countries. In this regard, exporters should leverage on the services offered by MATRADE. The 40 MATRADE overseas offices will also be able to advise you on doing business in your targeted export markets. MATRADE also offers various capacity building programmes that would help SMEs enlarge their capacity and competitiveness in marketing overseas including new ways of doing business via the internet.

18. In conclusion, I would like to congratulate Google for their initiative in organizing this event and having the first ThinkExport in Malaysia. With the Economic Transformation Programme where Ensuring Broadband for all Malaysians is one of the targeted Entry Points Projects, I am confident that there will be greater prospects in the communication sector. When the broadband capacity is markedly enhanced, more business opportunities will emerge as more efficient internet based applications are developed.

19. Last but not least, I would like to wish all participants a productive session this afternoon. I hope you will gain better insight and information of how one can better leverage on the internet and information technology as a facilitator to gain business competitiveness given the dynamic and constantly evolving global marketplace.

20. As for Ms. Aliza Knox and Mr. Elias Ghanem I would like to invite you to explore the sights and sounds of Malaysia. We are after all truly Asia.

21. With that, I take my leave. Thank you.