Greetings from MASSA !

2020 was a year of unprecedented disruptions and consequently a very challenging time for businesses and governments. We see evidence of global economic recovery from the pandemic in 2021. The fluidity of the Covid19 situation presents a significant and challenging risk factor nevertheless.

In this April newsletter, we report on Malaysia’s Digital Economy Blueprint and MyDIGITAL. This is a comprehensive set of initiatives to transform Malaysia to a digital ecosystem and to be a regional leader in digitalisation. This article presents how the Malaysian government, with support from various private stakeholders, will take on this challenge.

We feature the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia) in this newsletter edition. The article titled “Ethiopia Investment and Trade Opportunities: Presented to Malaysian Investors” gives us latest information on various economic sectors driving the economy of this strategically located country in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia’s economy grew at an average of 11% annually from 2010/11 to 2019/20 but slowed down to  6.1% in 2019/20 due to COVID-19. However, Ethiopia is still one of the fastest emerging economies in Africa. This is attributed to its conducive investment climate, large market size with a population of 110,871,031 people (CIA’s World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/the-world factbook/countries/ethiopia/#people-and-society) and high-level government commitment towards Foreign Direct Investment attraction. Ethiopia’s exports to Asia in 2018/2019 stood at 41.6% while it’s imports from Asia in the same year was 62.3% (International Trade Administration, https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/ethiopia-market-overview). In 2018, Ethiopia imported 149,435 tonnes of Malaysian palm oil and palm oil-based products worth RM 457.17 million

(https://www.thestar.com.my/business/businessnews/2019/11/08/malaysiaidentifying-new-potential-markets-for-palm-oil-in-africa), making Ethiopia one of the largest importers of Malaysian palm oil. We look forward to more business engagements between Ethiopia with our members in Malaysia and partners in the South-South region.

We also feature the upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai. This event will be held from October 2021 – 31 March 2022, held in the United Arab Emirates, with the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’. There will be six clusters of focus from which MITI and its agencies will be coordinating the trade and IR 4.0 clusters in the Malaysia Pavilion. We hope that this coverage will encourage our MASSA members and readers to participate in programmes held throughout the Expo and gain new knowledge whilst creating new business partnerships.

Finally, as we kickstart 2021, we want to thank our members, contributors, and partners for your support to date. MASSA remains committed to present to members, trade and investment leads from the South-South countries, especially in light of the post-pandemic era that requires heightened cooperation from all levels and on the digital platform.

To that end, several events to keep an eye out for are in the works, which comprise a second joint webinar with PIKOM on Cybersecurity and a joint webinar with the Embassy of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Jakarta, Indonesia (accredited to Singapore and Malaysia) on Ethiopia-Malaysia Business Promotion. We look forward to your participation in these business and digital-focused events as 2021 progresses.

We wish all members and readers to stay safe in this ongoing pandemic and to seize the opportunities whilst adapting to the ‘new normal’. 

Thank you.

Ng Su Fun

Editorial MASSA