Malaysia's IT Industry To Make A Strong Pitch At Hannover's Cebit Show

**Admin** Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:36 am

FRANKFURT, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- In the past, it was
something of an annual ritual to see mostly Japanese, South Koreans and Indians
from the Asian continent at the CeBIT trade fairs, the world's largest
information technology fair that is held in Hannover each March.

However, over the years, the faces, though still Asian,
are come from other countries as well. You get to increasingly see more and
more of them from the Asean region, particularly Malaysia which is making a
strong pitch at this year's CeBIT that will run from March 1 to 5.

Inspired by the ratings given to it by A.T. Kearny, the
management consulting firm - Malaysia was rated as the world's third most
attractive offshoring destination, after India and China - Malaysia is keen to
cash in on its image as a supplier of quality products whose better designs,
innovative prowess and post-sales service are factors that far outweigh the low
cost products and services provided by others.

Having learnt their lessons that low costs are not
necessarily an advantage if the quality and service provided are not right,
there has been a propensity amongst the major buyers of IT products and
services to look at alternatives.

The broad consensus amongst buyers is that Malaysia is
one such alternative.

The CeBIT fair will have a contingent of nine Malaysian
exhibitors representing a cross-section of the IT sector.

The Frankfurt office of the Malaysia External Trade
Development Corporation (Matrade) is organising Malaysia's participation at the
CeBIT fair.

"We have already sent out invitations not only to
German but also to European buyers so that Malaysian exhibitors have a large
number of visitors at the CeBIT," explained Sabri Ab. Rahman, the
Frankfurt-based Malaysian Senior Trade Commissioner, in an interview with
Bernama.

Some of the products and services Malaysian companies
will be offering include RFID reader modules, HF Bluetooth RFID reader - BHR
300, product design and development specialising in smartcard and biometric
technology, software quality assurance (SQA), software solutions for computer
and notebooks, voice loggers, mobile phone recorders, OCM-based hardware products,
SELECT-TV solutions and digital content creation for large format.

Malaysia's 2010 exports of IT hardware products to
Germany amounted to RM1.66 billion, up from RM1.42 billion in 2009.

Malaysia's IT exports to the European Union in 2010 amounted
to RM10.30 billion, up from RM8.47 billion in 2009.

"Malaysia is in a strategic location for business
process outsourcing and IT consulting services. The country's time zone is
ideal for handling transactions for many countries, offering quality skills,
excellent infrastructure and a multi-lingual workforce," Sabri said.

Malaysia's IT services have been offered to Saudi Arabia,
UAE, North Africa, Turkey, Indonesia, USA, Australia and Japan.

While juggling with figures, Sabri also made references
to some of the high-profiled IT contracts bagged by Malaysian companies in the
past such as the Security Operation Centre with Benz International Tech
Distribution FZ-LLC in Dubai, the electronic passport-issuing systems for
Turkey, Islamic financing and credit management systems in North Africa,
wireless solution software for seamless roaming network in Bahrain, integrated
gate management system and flight information display system for the
Boston-Logan International Airport.

Malaysia is also keen to participate as a "partner
country" at the CeBIT show in the future.

Under the deal, a partner country will get to enjoy a
variety of advantages, including special attention to the participating
country's industry.