21 APRIL 2015

Foreign exhibitors and visitors praised the Sarawak Timber & SMEs Expo 2015 organisers namely STIDC and Ministry of Industrial Development for their excellent efforts in ensuring the success of the four-day expo at Borneo Convention Centre, Kuching.

Mr. Alexandri Legawa from Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia said he was pleased that the organisers had invited them to participate in the show. Being the biggest among overseas participants, Indonesia Pavilion featured four timber booths and 12 SMEs. Besides Jepara furniture, their products also included Songket Sambas, Batik Indonesia, leather begs, wood skin begs, beads and Muslim clothes.

According to him, Indonesian products received overwhelming response from visitors particularly Jepara furniture which earned the highest sale value and Songket Sambas which was the most popular item in terms of quantity.

“I hope the future expos will be like a carnival. Music is important to make the event lively. Sape should be played to promote local culture. Demos should be encouraged to make the expo more interesting. Continuous announcement is also vital to tell visitors of the expo programmes and expo floor layout so that they do not miss any booth. Probably the organisers should collaborate with tourism sector in order to promote tourism products of Sarawak. I hope the future shows will also bring more international participants and perhaps Sarawak should make this expo an annual trade fair in order to have a bigger range of products. We will definitely come back and hope the organisers will give us more time to encourage bigger participation among our people” he said.

Meanwhile Miss Anna Chiew, representative from Terrasun Company Limited Korea described the expo as a good platform to market their products abroad. Her company specialises in skin care and cosmetics.

“Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this expo. It would be best if the future shows could be held on weekend only to ensure huge crowd and we would appreciate if exhibitors could be provided with free drink. We hope the organisers will invite more participants from varied sectors for the next event. Early invitation and promotion are also vital especially among international participants and we will certainly come back if there is improvement” she said.

Miss Hanna Pham of Poly-Poxy Coatings Vietnam Company Limited mentioned that she was happy to meet many businessmen during the expo which provided the avenue to promote and share information on their coating products with local entrepreneurs.

“The expo was well organised and smooth. Response on our products was encouraging. I am also delighted that the people were friendly and helpful. I will share this wonderful experience with the people of Vietnam. In future I hope the organisers will intensify overseas promotion not only to ensure greater participation but also to penetrate foreign markets. I am of the opinion that the first two days of future expos should be designated for business matching only because overseas participants came here seriously for business. Hence, the expo could be open to public after that. My company also aspires to establish its branch in Sarawak and hope that this expo will grow stronger to further develop business here” Miss Hanna added.

Chief Executive Director of Foundation for Forest Management and Production Control of Paramaribo-Suriname, Mr. Jules Pearl Steven stated that the expo gave them an insight into the business as well as forestry and wood-based sectors of Sarawak.

“We were impressed and I would give an A+ rating to this expo. Through this expo we learned more about Sarawak’s forests and wood-based industry. The House of Acacia and Bamboo House provided us information on the economic potential of Acacia and Bamboo. The expo also helped us to understand the forest certification process. We also saw the products of Borneo and other countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea and China. We are happy to note that Sarawak and Suriname have the same forests. To put this expo to the next level I think there is a need to bring in more industry players including woodworking machine industry to participate in future shows” he said.