MATRADE Annual Report 2020 56 MATRADE CORE PURPOSE MATRADE serves eight core purposes to sustain the export sector. The eight purposes are; facilitating market access, digitalising exports, providing market intelligence, enhancing the national export plan, building export readiness, expanding the export community, providing specific support and empowering brand Malaysia. Purpose 1 is to facilitate market access where MATRADE provides market opportunities for Malaysian companies by linking them to overseas buyers. For this, MATRADE organises participation in International Trade Fairs (ITF) for local companies to explore more export opportunities. In addition to this, MATRADE also organises Export Acceleration Missions (EAM) and conducts International Sourcing Programmes (INSP). These efforts are intended to help Malaysian companies gain access to export markets and explore new opportunities abroad to introduce local products and services. The spread of COVID-19 pandemic within a short span of time which led to international travel restrictions, resulted in the cancellation of ITFs by organisers. As a result of reduction in the number of promotion programmes, MATRADE instead leveraged on digitalisation initiatives and alternative methods of virtual business matching sessions between Malaysian companies and overseas buyers through eBizMatch. Existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were also key in ensuring market access for Malaysian companies in addition to the aforementioned initiatives. All efforts to facilitate market access are jointly carried out by MATRADE’s headquarters, regional and overseas offices. MATRADE's overseas offices monitor developments of business opportunities in international markets and provide market intelligence to the headquarters to enable matching of opportunities with Malaysian companies whenever the demand arises. Interested importers are also invited to participate in the INSP which are conducted virtually in conjunction with virtual trade fairs to meet targeted companies. Overseas offices also manage export promotion programmes that take place abroad. Purpose 2 relates to the aspects of digitalising exports where MATRADE focuses on driving cross-border eCommerce to ensure Malaysia's exports remain competitive. MATRADE has implemented various efforts and initiatives to achieve this goal, namely through regional cooperation as well as collaboration between ministries, government agencies and industry players. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness of the business community to explore new strategies to interact with customers and simplify transaction processes. The business community responded by increasing the utilisation of eCommerce as a more relevant and effective strategy. With this new development, MATRADE doubled its efforts to promote the adoption of eCommerce and strengthened network linkages within the eCommerce ecosystem, both domestically and internationally to enhance global market access. Purpose 3 is to provide market intelligence where MATRADE assists Malaysian companies by monitoring the development of business opportunities in overseas markets. This information is crucial to companies intending to explore export markets as it encompasses technological developments, customer expectations, global supply chain disruptions as well as non-tariff barriers, which in turn enables companies to formulate their export strategies.
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