Academy aims to ease shortage of export expertise

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Export Academy, formerly known as The Exporters’ Club, hopes to al leviate the shortage of export expert ise in the country by training the people, especial ly fresh graduates.

Its chief executive officer (CEO), Prof Dr Abdul Kabur Ibrahim, said the academy, s i tuat ed in Puchong , Selangor, was set up to provide trade- and export- related subjects.

He said a survey conducted by the academy on 100 small and medium enterprises ( SMEs) showed that none of them has a dedicated export de p a r tme n t even for c omp a n i e s whi ch wer e ac t ua l l y exporting.

“We have companies where the CEOs are working in the exporting side of the business or one person in the company who handles export- related matters and this is because they cannot f ind people with the right expertise,” he said.

Since export education and training were not taught in universities and col leges, Abdul Kabur said, entrepreneurs needed to be given hands - on training to prepare them to meet the challenges and competitions of the global market.

“Malaysia is one of the most trade- dependent countries in the world and this is the area we should give priority to.

Furthermore, one of the components in the SME Masterplan 2012-2020 is to go for exports.

“T he Goi n g Ex por t Prog ramme is one of t he six hi g h- imp a c t p r o g r amme s in t he masterplan,” he said.

He said there were three different segments that the academy was focusing on in terms of its offerings.

“They are short courses for the working adults, certificate programmes in collaboration with local and international partners and coaching for SMEs.

“Some of the short courses are trade financing, Customs procedures, free trade zones and export marketing skills,” he said.

Abdul Kabur said the academy offered professional programmes on expor t management, international trade and financing as well as freight forwarding in col laborations with local and international partners such as Universiti Utara Mal ays i a , Un ive r s i t i Malaysia Perlis, Institute of Export UK, Chartered Management Institute of UK, University of York and University of Switzerland, among others.

“We also have a project with Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit – BEST Expor ters programme. We provide coaching to 100 Bumiputera SMEs on export in which we deploy our trade advisers to the companies and factories to show them the way to handle export matters,” he said.

Looking ahead, Abdul Kabur said, the academy planned to set up an export s imulat ion cent re for trainees to have a handson experience in handling expor t- related mat ters. — Bernama