As of 3 July 2009, there were 102 applications for grants worth RM50.74 million received by MIDA. Of this total, 28 were from associations or professional bodies and 74 were from domestic service providers, two of which originated from Sarawak. The highest number of applications received was from the business and professional services sub-sector (30). Other sub-sectors which were actively applying for the SSCDF were the healthcare sub-sector with 17 applications, ICT sub-sector (14), the logistics sub-sector (12), the education sub-sector (8), the tourism sub-sector (2) and others sub-sector (19). To date, 31 applications have been approved with grants amounting to RM10.77 million. MIDF received 128 applications worth RM51.71 million for soft loans. The distributive trade sub-sector reported the highest number with 54 applications received, followed by the healthcare sub-sector (31), the business and professional services sub-sector (23), the logistics sub-sector (9), ICT...

Many Governments today are faced with a million dollar question – to liberalise or not. It is good for us to understand that the vast choices and competitive prices we pay for goods & products today are culmination of liberalisation through multilateral trade negotiations since 1947 under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) – now known as the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It must be noted that the WTO opened up markets and created rules to faciliate orderly conduct of global trade and prevented trade wars as well as global resources wastage. Read more to understand WTO’s role and its contribution.