Matrade launches activities aimed at enhancing service exports

• Brings total activities to 12, from the previous nine available under SEF
• Three new activities include participation fees in training programs held overseas

THE Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) has launched its new enhanced guidelines for Services Export Fund (SEF), alongside three new activities aimed at enhancing exports of services.

This will bring the total activities to 12 from the previous nine that were already available, it said in a statement. The SEF is an effort to facilitate and enhance capabilities of Malaysia Services Providers (MSPs) in gaining market access into overseas projects.

“Malaysia’s companies in the services sector have been very active in exploring overseas projects and some of them had successfully secured the projects through collaboration with local partners and host countries,” said Mohd Mustafa Abdul Aziz, chief executive officer of Matrade.

“The Malaysian government, through the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) and its agency Matrade, are supporting these efforts through the SEF, which was established in 2015 with the objective of enhancing the facilitation into overseas projects,” he added.

The additional three new activities are:

• The participation fees in training programs held overseas;
• Registration fees for certification including compliance to sustainability, and;
• Purchasing of software or purchasing/ hire purchase/renting of machinery and equipment.

Matrade said these three activities were added in view of their importance in complying with the requirement of overseas projects

The SEF has, since its inception in 2015, benefited 189 MSPs, covering such sectors as ICT, engineering, business services, construction and dducation, generating export value worth US$1.84 billion (RM7.6 billion), the government agency claimed.

[RM1 = US$0.242]

Matrade noted that the fund has enabled the MSPs to export their services to countries that include Indonesia, Philippines, China, Myanmar, Singapore, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.

According to Matrade, Malaysia’s exports of services in 2020 amounted to RM91.73 billion. Major sectors were transport, telecommunication, computer and information services and other business services, which included research and development, management and consultancy services, engineering). This accounted for 59% of the total exports, it said.

Going forward, Matrade urged more MSPs to come forward to be part of the programme. The new SEF guidelines will commence on the March 15 and MSPs must register as a Matrade member. The membership is complimentary and MSPs can register here.

More information on the SEF can be found here.