BANGKOK: Invest Selangor Bhd is eyeing up to RM7 billion in potential transaction value from the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) this year.
Invest Selangor chief executive officer Datuk Hasan Azhari Idris said following the overwhelming response from last year's SIBS, the summit will be held twice this year to accommodate increasing demand.
"Last year, we managed to achieve about RM6 billion in potential transaction value, so we are confident to be able to achieve RM1 billion more this year, with the first series set from July 25 to 27, while the second series will be held from Oct 16 to 19," he told Bernama after promoting the summit here on Saturday.
In terms of visitors, he said they are expecting around 60,000 visitors to attend the trade shows.
The SIBS is an annual business event initiated by the Selangor government and organised by Invest Selangor.
However, Hasan said the two events in the first series in July will focus on the investment sector, namely the Selangor Industrial Park Expo (Spark) and the Selangor Asean Business Conference (SABC).
He said Spark, themed 'Selangor, Gateway to Asean', aims to showcase Selangor's capabilities and attractiveness as an investment destination in the Southeast Asian region, and to provide a one-stop event to showcase potential investment locations in Malaysia as well as in Southeast Asia.
"Currently, Spark has received over 60 Pper cent of bookings and the response is very positive. It could be due to Spark [being able to] offer different and possible investment locations in a single event.
"Investors and business delegations can evaluate and compare to find any suitable locations as well as suitable partners for their investment projects," he said.
He added that Spark will feature over 150 companies, not only from Malaysia but also from Asean countries, and the participants will be from a diverse range of business sectors.
Meanwhile, Hasan said Selangor is pushing for an Asean agenda in the SABC as it aligns with its strategic objectives of economic growth, regional collaboration, policy advocacy and brand enhancement within the Asean context.
"In addition, it is with great advantage that Selangor see Asean as a comprehensive industries supply-chain ecosystem, where we must admit some countries may have competitive advantages to develop parts of the supply chain of certain industries, whereas we focus on the other parts of that supply-chain of certain industries.
"Therefore, the close cooperation is vital to ensure Asean as a whole can attract investment projects into the region collectively," he said.
He said the SABC will provide an intellectual discourse platform for investors and business communities to understand more about each country's value proposition, before visiting the country's pavilions in Spark 2024.
"The combination of these events will provide appropriate topics of discussion and networking opportunities between potential investors, the business leaders of Asean as well as the government officials attending the SABC and Spark," he added.
The SIBS, introduced in 2015, has attracted the participation of various government agencies, as well as industry players and trade visitors from foreign countries, including China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Uganda, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Türkiye, Kenya, and Australia.