Bengaluru 21 September 2023: Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) today facilitated the first trade mission from Malaysia post the pandemic, under the new Malaysian government. The trade delegation was led by Senator Fuziah Salleh, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN), Government of Malaysia. The Special Trade Mission to Bengaluru, was aimed at promoting Malaysian franchise brands in India while offering a platform for Indian franchise brands to invest in Malaysia. The mission also witnessed business matching programs and meetings facilitated by BCIC between Malaysian companies with investors and local Indian entrepreneurs for business cooperation.
Elaboration on Opportunities in Malaysia with Domesic Trade, Senator Fuziah Salleh said, “This trade visit is a significant milestone for us. India is growing rapidly, and we need to re-evaluate how to do trade with India. I believe that there is huge potential in the franchise industry, and we consider India as a very important trading partner moving forward. As a new government in Malaysia, we have introduced seven interventions and franchises is one of them. We believe that Malaysian franchises can develop and grow here in Karnataka and given the huge opportunity for the franchise industry in Malaysia, our government is working to make franchise affordable by introducing a RM 100,000 that housewives for example can explore. We also welcome Indian franchises to Malaysia.”
Delivering the Presidential address, Dr. S Devarajan, President BCIC said, “By facilitating this trade visit, BCIC has created further avenues for developing trade and development. We see great opportunities where India and Malaysia can collaborate in terms of startups, ecommerce, IoT, and education. Indian traders can also benefit from RBIs policy of allowing trade in Indian Rupees as against the US Dollar in the ASEAN region. This way they can achieve better prices for goods and services and save on currency conversion. Overall, this would be a win-win situation for both countries.”
Setting the context of the opening ceremony of Franchise Malaysia in Bengaluru, K Saravana Kumar Consul General of Malaysia, Chennai said, “Malaysia is the third largest trading partner for India in the ASEAN region, with bilateral trade amounting to USD 9.4 billion in 2021-22. Malaysia and India need to work towards how to fill up opportunities that exist, and we believe franchises are one of them. Our aim is to improve the standing of trading partners from the existing eleventh position, and we strongly believe that Karnataka can be the gateway for that. Malaysia can learn and benefit from several aspects such as digital economy, and digitization. We urge businessmen to consider visiting Malaysia to explore franchise opportunities. We will be happy to assist and guide them to set up Malaysian franchises in India and Indian franchises in Malaysia.” Said,
The KPDN’s delegation consisted of KPDN officials, the Malaysian Foreign Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and the Malaysian Franchise Association (MFA) and seven Malaysian franchises. These franchises namely Aloha, Little Caliphs, Marrybrown, Q-Dees, Sangkaya, Smart Reader Kids and UCMAS also set up a mini exhibition at the Malaysian Franchise Trade Expansion Mission to Bengaluru.
