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The EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently held the
second edition of the Europa Awards to recognise enterprises which have made
significant contributions towards initiating and
sustaining trade and investment between Malaysia
and Europe.
"In establishing the Europa Awards, we
have wanted to keep things short, sharp and exclusive. Hence, we
have narrowed the categories down to three. This, we believe is
the right decision from the start as it makes our awards more remarkable," Daivd Jones, EUMCCI
Chairman said at the awards ceremony in Kuala
Lumpur on the 15th of May.
The Highest Excellence in Trade/Investment
into the European Union (EU) by a Malaysian investor category was won
by Mayflower Acme Tours Sdn Bhd. The judges were impressed by the
company's substantial expansion overseas as most of its revenue is
derived from overseas markets and it has won any awards and achieved
consistent growth while having a low staff turn over. In the category of trade /
investment into Malaysia by a European investor,
no award was given since none of the contenders
achieved the strict excellence standards.
The Long Term Excellence in the EU-Malaysia Trade/Investment category was awarded to
Standard Chartered
Bank Malaysia Bhd. The bank has been operating in Malaysia
for 134 years and has shown consistent and strong double digit ROI in
the past
3 years. Excellent employment practices and its commitment to
sustainability were other notes of excellence. "We urge local
investors to look beyond traditional European markets and to understand
that the potential of the smaller 27-member EU states is waiting to be
tapped," said Jones. He said that they have the technology, good skills sets and
experience but are not very aggressive in
marketing themselves outside the European context.
Jones added that Malaysia should take
advantage of its position as an important business partner within the
ASEAN framework which has a population of 575 million and a gross
domestic product (GDP) of USD1.2 trillion (RM4.22 trillion). He
said that the time is ripe to attract smaller, less well known European
multinationals (MNCs) to come in. Given its land, infrastructure
and human as well as natural resources, Malaysia has the capability to
be a regional hub like Singapore.
"By inviting these smaller firms into the
country, you are encouraging trade and eventually, you will have a huge
cluster of MNCs that will in turn, create a cluster of human resources
expertise and support industries," he added. "In the long run,
these clusters will ultimately have a natural tendency to attract more MNCs to
come in," he explained.
The event, which highlights Europe Day
celebrated on the 9th of May, was graced by an orchestra composed of 23 Malaysian musicians who performed a wide array of famous European
classical masterpieces.
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photo gallery
Source: Malaysian Reserve 18 May 2009
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