PETALING JAYA: The Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) 2019 is expected to secure RM250 million in sales from RM194.6 million in 2018.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said SIBS 2019 would have more exhibitors participating from various government agencies with additional research and development expo by the human resource department.
“In 2018, SIBS was held across 18,808 sq m, with a total of 548 exhibition booths. The summit saw a total of 23,737 visitors. We are anticipating a bigger event this year, targeting 850 booths and expecting 30,000 visitors locally and from countries in the region,” he said at a press conference after launching the SIBS 2019 here yesterday.
He said SIBS would help strengthen Malaysia’s profile internationally as the strategic partner for businesses to enter the Asean market and Selangor.
“This would help us to solidify the state’s proposition to be the hub in the region, where businesses are able to gather, engage and network in one place – the gateway to Asean,” he said.
Amirudin said Selangor state had secured RM1.5 billion worth of investments in the first-quarter of this year with the overall target of achieving RM10 billion for the year.
“It is a bit conservative compared to our performance last year with RM18.9 billion investment s from 241 approved projects. Normally we can achieve our investment target.
“However, it is not just a number. We must get quality investments from international investors. We are focusing on high technology with five clusters already aligned by our investments committee,” he added.
Amirudin said the state investment committee was positive on its capability to attract investors, despite the uncertainty of the global economic scenario including the US-China trade war.
“We have already invested the infrastructure. We have the guidelines and investments clusters including the machinery, transportation, food and beverage, life sciences, electric and electronic.
“We set the investment pillars based on the availability of our infrastructure and skilled workers. We focus on the quality to get better job for the state,” he said.
Amirudin said Selangor welcomed businesses across the globe mainly from Africa, China and Europe as well as regionally for its strength and niche skills.
“Malaysia is a politically stable country under the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) government. The administration has done some correction in their policies and the stability was still in progress in the past one year.
“We see some positive actions and numbers of investments come in. It shows the trust from the international committee is back to Malaysia compare to the last three years,” he said.
Amirudin said Selangor was still the pillar of economic growth but reckoned that it should gain more trust from the local investors to drive the country’s business sentiment.
“Selangor is the most attracted investment destination in Malaysia. Now, our focus is to enhance our ability and infrastructure to facilitate investors,” he said, adding that Selangor has over 30 higher learning education centres, particularly in Kajang, Semenyih and Bangi.
He said the green area of the state in Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor and Ulu Selangor had become the agro-tourist hub for potential investment portfolio.
SIBS 2019 features programmes such as the Fifth Selangor International Expo 2019, the Third Selangor-Asean Business Conference 2019, the Fourth Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention and the inaugural Selangor R&D and Innovation Expo to encourage greater business opportunities.