All cheers for Malaysia at FWC 2017

The 56th session of the FIATA World Congress, co-hosted by Ministry of Transport and the Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF), received accolades from Zurich-based FIATA for the successful hosting of the event in Kuala Lumpur.

FIATA is the influential non-governmental organisation (NGO), which represents the freight forwarding industry worldwide.

One of the largest and most important events in the global logistics industry calendar, the FIATA World Congress was attended by more than 1000 delegates, from 77 countries. Over 300 official B2B meetings were conducted, with 20 per cent involving Malaysian business.

“We were most impressed with the level of professionalism in the organisation of the Congress in Kuala Lumpur, and the large number of delegates who attended would benefit from the many new contacts made,” said Hans Guenther Kersten, Director-General of FIATA. “I believe our colleagues in the region took away much food for thought, listening to the world logistics experts sharing their knowledge and experiences,” said Alvin Chua, President of FMFF.

“We were grateful for the opportunity to showcase what Malaysia has to offer to the international logistics community,” he added, “and I think many of the delegates were surprised at the progress and growth of the industry and extent of the infrastructure development support from the government in Malaysia.”

YB Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of Transport Malaysia, expressed his appreciation to FIATA, FMFF and delegates of the FIATA World Congress 2017 for the successful outcome of the event. “I believe we have achieved our objective of ‘Logistics Bridging Global Trade’ given the high level of mutual cooperation and partnerships shown during the congress. This is indeed an exciting time for the logistics industry in the region and around the world,” he said. After Kuala Lumpur, the FIATA 2018 and FIATA 2019 Congresses will be held in New Delhi and Cape Town respectively. Topics in this year’s Congress included the impact of technology on trade and logistics, gains from infrastructure investment, updates on an emergent Africa and logistics training for the “NextGen” of freight forwarders.