Use Matrade to penetrate China market, Malaysian exporters told

NANNING (China), Oct 20 (Bernama) -- Small and medium-scale Malaysian exporters have been advised to use the services of the country's four trade representatives in China to succeed in this market of 1.4 billion people.

Trade Commissioner Shawn Sim, who is in his third of a four-year posting in Guangzhou, said the exporters should first send their product details to the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

The trade commissioners including him would then conduct a market survey and try to find good potential buyers for business matching.

"If possible, ask the trade commissioner to be present at the meeting because in China, policy and business come together.

"If the trade commissioner is there they (the potential partner) will talk straight, they are serious," he told Malaysian journalists covering the 8th China-Asean Expo (Caexpo) 2011 from Oct 21 to 26 here.

He said the exporters should also engage a business advisory company to do a detailed check on the company they would be dealing with such as regarding its current operations and financial status.

"Thirdly, your proposed investment planning. You want sell to China, say RM1 million for your promotion and everything, you need to prepare extra for a deeper relationship," Sim said.

Packaging is also very important in addition to having a very good product, he said.

On bird's nest, he said, the exporters must first test their products for nitrate in Malaysia.

Presently, 80% of bird's nest products in the Chinese market come from Malaysia although Indonesia is the largest producer, and to keep its market share, Malaysia needs to introduce a standard for bird's nest to tackle the issue of nitrate content, he said.

Sim, who is based in Guangzhou covering seven provinces in China, said Malaysia should assign more trade commissioners in this country.

"The four that we have is not enough. A province like Guangdong has 21 cities.

"If you look at Korea, there are 12 and they want to increase that to 18.

Singapore has more than 10. So Malaysia must increase trade promotion offices, it's not an option," he said.

China was Malaysia's top trading partner in 2010. Bilateral trade between Malaysia and China amounted to RM146.53 billion with Malaysia's exports totalling RM80.1 billion and imports at RM66.43 billion.

In the first seven months of 2011, total trade was RM92.35 billion with exports at RM50.84 billion and imports at RM41.51 billion.

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