Huge opportunities for British retailers

Mirza and Collingridge exchanging tokens of appreciation at the launch of the seminar.

The growth of the retail industry in recent years, in terms of tourist expenditure in Malaysia, has prompted Tourism Malaysia to encourage British retailers to set up their businesses here.

In collaboration with United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI), Tourism Malaysia hosted a seminar at the Petroleum Club, Petronas Tower Two yesterday to talk about business opportunities in Malaysia for retailers.
Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyab officially launched the full-day seminar. Also present to moderate one of the panel discussions was UKTI director Tony Collingridge.

“Last year, Malaysia’s retail industry grew by 5.5% with RM87.8bil in sales turnover, with tourist expenditure amounting to RM19bil of this total,” said Mirza in his speech. “With Visit Malaysia Year 2014 fast approaching, this is a great window of opportunity to welcome more British businesses to establish themselves in the Malaysian retail industry.
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Mirza said statistics showed that shopping is a lucrative sector of Malaysia’s tourism industry, holding the second biggest share of tourist expenditure after accommodation.

The RM19bil spent by tourists on shopping last year is a growth of 5.7% from 2011, constituting about 30.7% of all tourist receipts amounting to RM60.6bil.
“Our target is to attract 36 million tourists and RM168bil worth of receipts by the year 2020, and this can be a huge market for brands who base their operations in Malaysia,” Mirza added.

Shopping Malaysia Secretariat head Ramzi Abu Yazid, who was one of the speakers at the seminar, said there was an influx of tourists to the Asia Pacific region in recent years, particularly from mainland China.

Ramzi also said an international survey had placed three Malaysian shopping complexes — 1Utama, Mid Valley Megamall and Sunway Pyramid – among the top ten largest shopping complexes in the world, measured by gross leasable area.

He said an article by CNN Travel in September 2013, had ranked Kuala Lumpur as the fourth best shopping city in the world after New York, Tokyo and London.
He said the article partially attributes this to the three major sales seasons in Malaysia — the 1Malaysia GP Sale in March, the 1Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival in July and August, and the 1Malaysia Year-End Sale in November and December.

The seminar was attended by both British retail industry members and local retailers, who said the seminar provided an excellent opportunity for networking.
-thestar online.