KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 — The virtual version of the most prestigious annual business event, the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) 2020, had scored a great success by attracting more than 170,000 digital audiences when it was held from October 14 to 20 this year.
Originally scheduled for four days, the Virtual SIBS 2020 was extended by another three days to allow the ‘large crowd’ to have more opportunities to create, connect and collaborate with top brands and industry players, virtually and globally.
The event, launched by Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin bin Shari, was held in a different format to observe the new norms due to the current health concern.
Selangor Investment, Industry and Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprise Committee chairman Dato’ Teng Chang Kim said Virtual SIBS 2020 also welcomed more than 2,600 visitors from 54 participating countries.
“The success of Virtual SIBS2020 was built on insightful knowledge sharing by high-calibre speakers and boundless cross-border networking opportunities, hence enabling companies to expand into new markets in a new way of the norm.
“The summit had successfully reaffirmed the smart state’s status in leading the adoption of digital technology in doing business and at the same time, assisted entrepreneurs to reboot and rise in this time of crisis,” he said.
Fifty-one inspiring speakers and 286 exhibitors participated in the week-long event, while a total of 282 business matchings worth RM1,093,457 were recorded by the organiser.
“Offering borderless, Virtual SIBS has been successful in bringing together global brands and congregate industry players from around the world to help business players reset and reboot while providing valuable knowledge-sharing, networking and business matching sessions catered to all visitors,” said Teng.
Hosted in the virtual networking business platform called the Selangor Business Hub (SBH), Virtual SIBS 2020 had three main components, the first being the Selangor International Expo (SIE), an F&B trade expo featuring exhibitors from countries like Indonesia, Philippines, India, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand, Italy and Malaysia.
The second component, the Selangor Asean Business Conference (SABC), brought together prominent speakers, business leaders, trade-related associations as well as trade policy developers from multiple and diverse backgrounds and economic sectors from Asean and its partner countries.
The third component, The Smart City and Digital Economy Convention (SDEC) also organised its Startups Showcase 2020 where SMEs and Corporations took the opportunity to combine and discover the new strategies and solutions in order to continue gain and improved investment growth. The Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards is a prestigious award that seeks to reward the most successful, creative and innovative homegrown e-merchants.
“SIBS is our continuous effort to transform Selangor into a global trading hub, with the emphasis on the region as a market with over 640 million population and home to some 200 of the world’s largest companies and I am confident that Selangor will continue to offer the best value proposition as an ideal home for companies penetrating beyond Malaysia and into the Asean market,” said Teng.
Virtual SIBS 2020 will continue from 2020 to 2021, hence allowing entrepreneurs to utilise the platform longer than the event’s official duration of seven days.
The state government is planning to return to the hybrid event with more excitement from October 7-10, 2021, if the situation of the pandemic gets better.
— Bernama
