Missing out on a 500mil market close to home

Businessman says Malaysian entrepreneurs should be more aggressive and expand into Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

A market of almost 500 million people lies in just three Asean members, says businessman Vijay Eswaran. (Reuters pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian entrepreneurs must make a wider impact by expanding into the international market, starting with the large Asean population, says businessman Vijay Eswaran.

“Asean is actually our own captive market, yet we are not capitalising on that market. If Malaysia wants to make it as a global trading nation, we must capitalise on Asean.

Businessmen should not get comfortable only doing business in the domestic market, as the country’s current population of 30 million people was not enough to sustain their business for the long term, especially if they had plans to expand, he said.

“This is unlike Indonesia, which has a population of about 300 million and therefore a more sustainable market for a longer term. But there are not many Malaysian brands that are famous there,” he told Bernama.

Eswaran, who is chairman of QI Group, said Malaysians could look at the markets in just three of the 10 Asean members, which have a total population of almost 500 million: Indonesia (300 million), the Philippines (100 million) and Vietnam (100 million).

Malaysia’s location, at the centre of the region, made it “a natural hub for the Southeast Asian market. We are connected all the way across the region.”

He said Malaysia had a foot in both mainland Asia through the peninsula, and archipelagic Asia through Borneo. Malaysian products and brands should be moving across Asean, he said.

“We should be pushing our businesses in the Asean region more aggressively, allowing for both ways of trade. We have created a mentality of job creators in our education system. We have to create more incubators, we need to have more of a start-up mentality. The problem we are facing in Asean currently is the lack of this mentality,” he said.

Asean comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia. - FMT