KUALA LUMPUR, 13 NOVEMBER 2025 – The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) is spearheading efforts to drive Malaysian Mid-Tier Companies (MTCs) in navigating the next wave of growth on the global stage. As Malaysia’s national trade promotion agency, MATRADE continues to play a pivotal role in shaping a new generation of globally competitive MTCs through its strategic initiatives including its flagship platform, the MTC CEO Summit 2025.
Themed “Forging ASEAN’s Next Chapter: Malaysian Mid-Tier Companies Driving Resilient and Inclusive Growth”, the Summit convened over 300 CEOs from the Mid-Tier Companies Development Programme (MTCDP) alumni network alongside key industry stakeholders, with the aim of strengthening connectivity, competitiveness, and collaboration within the regional business ecosystem.
Graced by YB Senator Datuk Seri Utama Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), the MTC CEO Summit 2025 reaffirmed the Government’s unwavering commitment to nurturing an enabling environment that empowers Malaysian MTCs to thrive and expand in an increasingly dynamic global economy.
During his keynote address, Tengku Zafrul underscored that Malaysia’s MTCs form the core of the nation’s industrial ecosystem, characterised by agility, innovation, and strong global orientation. Their sustained growth reflects the robustness of Malaysia’s solid economic fundamentals and the success of a synergistic partnership between the public and private sectors.
He further emphasised that under the MADANI Economy framework, Malaysia’s MTCs bear a dual mandate: driving economic expansion while fostering inclusive growth that benefits domestic businesses and communities. Their resilience, ambition, and expanding global footprints exemplify the nation’s vision for a sustainable, future-ready, and globally integrated economy.
Building on this commitment, insights from the MTCDP Impact Tracking Report 2024 underscored the strong performance and expanding global footprint of Malaysian MTCs. The report highlighted that participating companies collectively recorded an annual revenue of RM39.50 billion, with RM22.8 billion generated through export activities. These MTCs have successfully expanded into 115 international markets, including niche destinations such as Mozambique and Seychelles, demonstrating their ability to compete and succeed beyond traditional export frontiers.
The findings also reaffirmed the pivotal role of MTCs in supporting Malaysia’s domestic growth, having empowered more than 11,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within local supply chains, with 34% are medium-sized enterprises.
In addition, MTCs collectively created 6,400 new employment opportunities, with 69% of these positions designated for high-skilled professionals, reinforcing the development of a competitive, innovation-driven workforce aligned with Malaysia’s aspiration for sustainable and inclusive economic advancement.
This achievement reflects the programme’s success in nurturing export champions and reaffirms the Government’s commitment to empowering resilient, innovative, and internationally competitive enterprises that will drive Malaysia’s next phase of regional and global growth.
The MTCDP was introduced in 2014 as one of the Government’s high impact initiatives in the Malaysia Development Plan, aimed to accelerate the export growth of MTCs to become regional and global champions. Aligned with the MADANI Economy and the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) 2030, MATRADE strives to create more export champions from the programme, advocating the ongoing efforts by the Government in regenerating Malaysian economy, driving the growth of new sectors while striking the balance to ensure socio-economic inclusiveness and sustainability.
The MTCDP supports export-oriented MTCs with annual revenues between RM50 million to RM500 million for manufacturing companies and RM20 million to RM500 million for service providers and to date, 394 companies have benefited from this programme, which serves as a platform for structured guidance, market access, and export acceleration.
