Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz told participants of the DHL GoTrade Summit 2025 on Tuesday (Oct 21) that most of the economic deliverables under Malaysia's Asean chairmanship are expected to be completed by the end of this year.
00:00The conversations and the discussions we've had today show that we must work even harder
00:05to ensure the inclusivity and the accessibility of MSMEs paving the way towards shared prosperity.
00:14There is a need for an accelerated joint cooperation between the public and private sectors to
00:20advance the agenda of breaking down trade barriers for this sector.
00:26Our goals for GoTrade remain the same.
00:30Since 2021, we have launched projects in more than 60 countries, reaching over 14,000 small
00:36businesses and more than 5,000 women-owned businesses.
00:40We have supported over 2,000 participants across 20 workshops in collaboration with MarTrade
00:47since 2023.
00:50We have also successfully reached out to 1,200 members of women-led SMEs through our partnership
00:57with the Asian Foundation.
00:58So ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure all of us agree that 2025 has been a pretty volatile year
01:06for global trade and underpinned by trade networks that have been retuned and retooled by tariffs,
01:15trade wars as well as turf wars.
01:18And to add to that complexity, supply chains that mirror new geopolitical alliances and climate
01:25disasters continue to threaten the integrity of the world order.
01:31And all this has added a huge risk premium to the resilience, sustainability, sovereignty,
01:38and security of our trade architecture.
01:41And just take tariffs whose impacts are threefold.
01:45First, it has caused cost inflation across borders.
01:49Second, it has led to fragmented supply chains and a certain degree of dumping, challenging price
01:55points from producers.
01:57And third, it has caused business hesitation in investing due to uncertainty.
02:04And this is precisely why we need to rethink and retune trade differently, particularly to
02:10help our MSME shape and sustain their shift and change in their strategy where necessary.
02:18So this is important given how MSMEs are the backbone of ASEAN and Malaysia's economy.
02:25So ladies and gentlemen, as Chair in 2025, especially for the economic pillar,
02:30Malaysia is continued and committed to elevating ASEAN as the beacon of economic resilience,
02:37opportunity, and regional cooperation.
02:39Malaysia takes the responsibility of elevating our SMEs seriously, especially our MSMEs.
02:47And this is evident from several priority economic deliverables or the PEDs that champion their needs.
02:54For example, catalyzing access to climate financing, growing a more inclusive ASEAN capital market,
03:01establishing the MSME Centre of Excellence for Green Transition,
03:07and creating a strong digital economy foundation by our Digital Economy Framework Agreement.
03:13So I am pleased to share that most of these PEDs will be completed by the end of our Championship Daniel.
03:20In closing, I hope everyone had a fruitful summit with actionable and scalable takeaways to further elevate our MSMEs.
03:29Share that with them with us at METI so we can see what more we can do.
03:34On that note, our appreciation again to the Prime Minister and also to DHL for making a meaningful difference to the SME and MSME ecosystem of Malaysia and the region.
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