KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — The Malaysia External Trade Development Corp’s (Matrade) International Sourcing Programme (INSP), held last week in conjunction with the International Construction Week (ICW) 2018, has secured a total of  RM315.50 million in potential sales.

In a statement here, Matrade said, for this year, INSP ICW 2018, in collaboration with the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia, involved 19 buyers from 12 countries, namely, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey.

"This is another successful year for Matrade on its one-to-one business-matching programme. A total of 158 business meetings were arranged with Malaysian companies to supply products and services needed by these foreign buyers,” it said.

The country’s export promotion agency said among the potential products and services identified included road patch mix, bitumen emulsions, sanitary ware, asphalt, road marking, park furniture, paints and coating, river and silica sand, metal parts, moulding, cables, smart city and energy savings solution, trading, roofing and metal doors.

The INSP ICW 2018 was Matrade’s fourth participation in the series since 2014.

ICW is the largest and the most important annual event covering the full spectrum of construction industry across Malaysia and Southeast Asia which brings together construction industry players under one roof to showcase, learn, build partnerships and share innovative ideas.

"Malaysian companies are encouraged to leverage on this platform to promote and sell their products and services to these potential buyers,” said Director of Construction and Business Services, Rusiah Mohamed.

In 2017, Malaysia’s total export of building materials and construction services were valued at RM29.79 billion and RM4.18 billion respectively.

The major exported building materials last year were wood products, sawn timber and moulding, manufactures of metal, iron & steel products and non-metallic mineral products. — Bernama