New trade platform to boost access to China, Asean markets

The China – Asean SME Trade Promotion Platform, which is aimed at helping Malaysian exporters enhance their entry into China and the Asean market, is set to improve access to a combined market size of 1.9 billion consumers.

The platform was launched by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) in collaboration with Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area Administration Committee (GQFTPAC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Malaysia.

It offers Malaysian companies two channels, both online and offline, called Haigou 365 and MAYI Imported Goods.

The former is an e-commerce platform for online sales of products, which focuses on before and after sales services while the latter is a service that integrates facilitation on purchase, customs clearance as well as logistics and export management.

“This platform will be useful for Malaysian companies, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to ease their efforts to reach out to the consumers in China and Asean. The platform is suitable for a lot of our exporters as it offers a comprehensive service that caters to both before and after sales requirements,” Matrade CEO Datuk Dzulkifli Mahmud said in a statement.

He urged Malaysian companies to leverage on the opportunities provided by the new platform to reap the rewards of Malaysia’s strong bilateral relationship with China and the 10 Asean member states.

The platform will allow more Malaysian companies to supply to China especially to its second and third tier cities while strengthening Malaysia’s intra-Asean trade.

From January till October 2016, trade to China was recorded at RM191.65 billion and exports were at RM77.4 billion.

During the same period, trade to Asean was valued at RM328.58 billion and exports to Asean remained strong at 4.2% or RM7.62 billion to reach a value of RM188.27 billion, compared with RM180.65 billion a year ago.