Bank Negara Malaysia announced Malaysia’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2019 was 4.3%.  This has been lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009 and was partly attributable to supply disruptions, especially in the commodity sector. Overall growth was sustained by higher private sector spending.

Malaysia witnessed a swift change of Government in March 2020 and following that, came an onslaught of unprecedented events that included the middle east oil debacle, volatile financial and equity markets and the Covid-19 pandemic. Needless to say, we are facing very challenging times going forward. We urge members to do the needful to stay safe during these pandemic days.

MASSA had to postpone a number of planned programmes for members. These included a visit to the Selangor Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC) in Shah Alam, Selangor to learn of their facilities and training programmes to enable, especially SME business operations to be Industry 4.0 ready. A planned visit for members to Drone Academy in Cyberjaya, Selangor has also been rescheduled later in the year.  Drone technology applications are fast developing and has the potential to replace laborious, difficult and dangerous tasks.

In this April newsletter, we bring you a trip report of a MASSA visit to Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) on 20 February 2020.  The Vice President of TPM Park Management & Services, Mr Shahazman Abu Samah  and his team at TPM spent a morning briefing us on the mission and objectives of TPM.  This institution has played a key role to incubate Malaysian cutting edge technology, some of which have had a big economic impact on the country and our export growth.

H.E.  Ibete Fernandez Hernandez, Ambassador of the Republic Cuba to Malaysia visited MASSA secretariat on 22 January 2020.  Her Excellency’s visit had enabled MASSA to establish links with Cuba through her good office in Kuala Lumpur.  Members are encouraged to read articles from The Cuba Weekly, that are now circulated every fortnite to MASSA members.  The potential to establish business links with this untapped market is promising.  We thank Her Excellency for giving readers an interesting article on her country, Cuba.  This country has todate many G2G exchanges with our Government in the health and medical sectors.

We also thank our Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) for an article on the range of funding and incentives that our Government has made available for SME businesses in their quest to adopt Industry 4.0 applications in their work processes.  We encourage members to get acquainted with these incentives and to seek out MIDA for further information.

Thank you.

Ng Su Fun