The Market Development Grant (MDG) is the provision of matching grants to assist Malaysian SMEs to undertake promotional activities for the development of export markets. This is done by providing grants to partly defray the cost of promotional activities undertaken for this purpose.

Since 2002, a total of 1,238 SMEs have received assistance under the scheme including 639 SMEs in 2005. These SMEs reported export sales worth RM123.3 million and potential sales of RM262.7 million in 2005. For the period January 2002 to 21 March 2007, a total of 5,202 applications valued at RM43.81 million, from 1,784 SMEs, were approved. Sectoral breakdown shows that most of the companies were involved in Furniture (15.3%), Prepared Food (11.3%), Building & Construction Materials and Hardware (7.2%), Computer & Related Services (5.7%), and Machinery & Equipment (5.4%).

The majority of the SMEs participated in activities such as Overseas International Trade Fair (53.15%), Local International Trade Fair (20.13%), Preparation of Promotional Materials (14.13%) and Trade Mission (8.77%).

Companies can obtain a 50% reimbursable matching grant on the approved cost of the eligible activities. The grant is available for one or more of the eligible activities. The maximum limit of RM100,000 was abolished from 1 June 2006.

The following activities are eligible for the MDG:

The following are the application and claim procedures for the MDG:

• Application for the grant is made using the application form MDG Rev 1/06 which is available free of charge from MATRADE or can be downloaded from the MATRADE’s website: www.matrade.gov.my/exportsupport/mdg.htm. All companies are encouraged to apply for the MDG at least one month before undertaking the activity. This is to ascertain if the activity is eligible for the grant.
• Claims for the reimbursement of all eligible activities must be submitted within 3 months of completion of the activity with the invoices and original receipts or their respective copies certified by External Auditors.
• Companies are required to provide application and claim supporting documents when applying for the grant as described in the MDG application form, and the checklist attached to the form. Companies are advise to submit all relevant document when applying for the MDG.