PETALING JAYA: Malaysian mid-tier companies (MTCs) have shown resilience and creativity in managing their businesses through the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) said.
It said MTCs realigning their business focus to new areas of growth has successfully resulted in emerging business opportunities during the global Covid-19 lockdown and converting them into export transactions.
CEO Mustafa Abdul Aziz said Malaysian MTCs had weathered the storm in 2021 despite multiple lockdowns, disruption of supply chains as well as raw material and manpower shortages.
“MTCs have successfully registered RM17.8 billion in export revenue, growing nearly 15% compared to the previous year,” he said, adding the increase in exports in 2021 was valued at RM2.4 billion.
“Cumulatively, alumni of the MTC development programme recorded a RM8.33 billion increase in export revenue since 2015. This demonstrated the resiliency of the MTCs amidst the global challenges,” he said.
He said mid-tier companies had shown encouraging performance by creating more than 4,000 new jobs, including skilled occupations such as engineers and technical positions.
“This shows another clear piece of evidence of their resiliency during the height of the pandemic when job cuts were rife,” he said.
Mustafa said Matrade believed that three key factors would strengthen the resiliency of MTCs in preparing to face the oncoming challenges in 2023.
“First, MTCs should be able to explore new niche areas and diversify their market outreach. This is to ensure their agility by pivoting into different types of markets and industries,” he said.
Secondly, MTCs should immerse themselves in digitalisation, which has been the enabler and is pervasively used to improve productivity, communicate effectively and enhance the delivery of services, he said.
“Finally, MTCs should now be able to adopt sustainability practices to position their businesses at a higher level of competitiveness,” he added.
In line with the 12th Malaysia Plan, he said Matrade would strive to create more export champions, support the government’s ongoing efforts to regenerate the economy and drive the growth of new sectors while ensuring socio-economic inclusiveness and sustainability.
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2022/12/13/mid-tier-companies-resilient-and-creative-amidst-global-headwinds/