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Meeting with The New York Times

The role of MFIC - the major steps that need to be taken to promote and develop
Malaysian furniture industry

As a furniture manufacturing and export driven national body, MFIC plays a catalytic role in assisting both the
private and public sectors towards the promotion and development of the Malaysian furniture industry in the
global market place. With the objective to enhance the Malaysian furniture industry, it has translated to activities
such as organising promotional and marketing activities to enhance the reputation of Malaysia furniture in the
internatinal arena and coordinate the arrangement of overseas furniture fairs and trade missions for Malaysian
furniture manufactures and exporters.

The importance of international expansion using a global manufacturing approach:


priorities and objectives
Global manufacturing approach has created many opportunities and more and more Malaysian furniture
companies are taking advantage out of this revolution. In line with the global manufacturing revolution, the
Malaysian furniture companies' priorities and objectives are very must focus in reducing manufacturing costs by
utilising low labour cost countries, reduce business risk and filters currency exchange fluctuations and also a
source of enterprise growth, achieved by assessing new markets.

The greatest challenges to face when it comes to innovations and research &
developement in the timber industry

In many developed countries, innovations and research & development lead the private sectors to move.
However, it will be different on our end. I would say the greatest challenge is to develop our research &
developement output to be more market driven rather than reasearch and development driven. Thus, reasearch
& development experts must continue colloborate with industries players to produce more market driven output
to further drive the industry higher.

Corporate social responsibility and the importance of environment sustainability:


vision and achievement.

Corporate social responsibility is about doing business in trasparent manners that are based on ethical values,
respect for the community, employees, the environment, shareholders and other stakeholders. it is designed to
deliver sustainable value to society at large. I would like to share with you on some developments on the
Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC), which is very much focus on the environment aspect. As for
your infomation, The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) is an independent organisation established
to develop and operate the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) in order to provide independent
assessments of forest management practices in Malaysia as well as to meet the demand for certified timber
products. With the system in place, the timber is known to be harvested from a legal source and has a Chain-of-
Custody where all suppliers have the right permits, mandatory approvals and all the documents required by the
specific permitting frameworks.
Opportunities in the U.S. Market

Although many negative statements came out from U.S. market such as "Great Recession of 2011–2012", U.S.
economy confidence more negative and unemployment rate is high. I am still very optimistic in 2011 and
beyond. I strongly believe the current situation will stablise and recover in maybe mid of 2011. A piece of good
news, Malaysian furniture exports to USA increased 15.4% from RM 1.4 billion, for the period January- August
2009 to RM 1.6 billion for the period January- August 2010. This strong rebound shown that Malaysian furniture
exports to USA continue to be strong despite many worries about dynamic of U.S. economy.

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