About TiE Malaysia

TIE MALAYSIA CHAPTER, in existence since 2002 has been instrumental in bridging entrepreneurs from Malaysia, United States, India and the world through active participation in TiE Global, the world’s largest non-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship.. TiE Malaysia has been evolving and developing an entrepreneurship organization in the ASEAN region - promoting an ASEAN secretariat for entrepreneurship. This initiative’s primary objective is to enhance Malaysia’s position as the focal point for entrepreneur development in the ASEAN region and consequently serve as the conduit for TiE entrepreneurs setting-up in the ASEAN region.

TiE Malaysia
Working with organizations like Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission and MDeC, TiE Malaysia is recognised as putting Malaysia’s interest at the forefront of its endeavours, promoting entrepreneurship through cross border initiatives. Since the TiE APAC conference in November 2010, there have been many positive developments in the area of trade and investment with India. These include the conclusion of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, the execution of India and Malaysia- India MOU covering Billions of Ringgit in major road projects by Malaysian entities in India.

President of TiE Malaysia, Datuk Ir Kuna Sittampalam, through his office, has played key roles in these endeavours. At the same time, with MDeC, TiE is cooperating by identifying investment targets in the Silicon Valley through its well established network and working on various events in tandem. Over and above this, these organizations have benefited through promotional activities at TiE’s global & regional conferences which were facilitated through TiE Malaysia’s good offices including the TiE Asia Pacific Conferences.

These high profiled events have positioned TiE Malaysia to command greater support from TiE’s global organization to launch regional programs in Malaysia. TiE Malaysia is excited to fulfil this role and to continue the momentum created from TiE APAC 2010 to forge ahead and further collaborate with various government agencies to promote the opportunities in the capital markets in Malaysia vide the secretariat.

The Secretariat - ASEAN
The TiE ASEAN Secretariat will become a focal point for TiE International members to seek information across ASEAN on emerging entrepreneurs keen on collaboration with entrants seeking a presence throughout ASEAN.

The most important aspect of the secretariat is as the focal point to promote ASEAN with entrepreneurs of Indian origin who are making a significant mark on the global stage. Therefore, Malaysia would benefit tremendously from this phenomena.

Benefits to Malaysia

• The long term future for small to medium economies such as Malaysia is being part of larger trading bloc. AFTA has created a market of 513 million people and combined GDP of US$ 555.3 billion and is an embodiment of this ideal. The TiE ASEAN Secretariat is a step in the right direction to accentuate the concept of eventually having an integrated market for entrepreneurs throughout ASEAN.

• As alluded earlier, the secretariat in Kuala Lumpur will position Malaysia to capitalize on emerging Indian and NRI (Non-Resident Indian) owned businesses worldwide. Collaboration with successful entrepreneurs of Indian origin will enhance Malaysia competitiveness as there is a natural fitment between Malaysia and these entrepreneurs.

• Malaysia has relative strength compared to India in terms of infrastructure and capital to support entrepreneurial activities. On the other hand Indian entrepreneurs can close gaps in technology and innovation where Malaysia sorely lacks.

• TiE, with its strong membership in India, US and the UK make it an excellent provider of intellectual capital urgently required for Malaysia’s desire to move into higher value added sectors. This is substantiated by indicators as follows.

• India and entrepreneurs of Indian origin today are acknowledged leaders in information technology, renewable energy, biotechnology and a reservoir for human talent. The secretariat can assist Malaysia by opening channels for Malaysian entrepreneurs to tap into this vast source of new technologies as a basis for innovative business models.

• Access to knowledge of opportunities in ASEAN countries would be critical in facilitating Malaysian entrepreneurs to secure opportunities in the region. Inevitably to grow, achieve scale and be competitive, Malaysian businesses will have to expand regionally. Thus, access to information on opportunities in the region would be invaluable.

• Further, coordinated effort in chanelling Malaysia’s capital in particular to least developed ASEAN countries provide avenues for Malaysian enterprises to package projects which produce enhanced returns on investments to Malaysian entrepreneurs. This model has been successfully been practiced by Japan and Japanese corporations and increasingly by China and Chinese companies.

• The presence of the secretariat in Kuala Lumpur naturally makes it the preferred location for TiE ASEAN events. The advantage of events being hosted in Malaysia is two-fold. First it draws leading Indian thought / business leaders to Kuala Lumpur and secondly it attracts other ASEAN entrepreneurs to Kuala Lumpur, thus augmenting Kuala Lumpur as the preferred location for commerce between ASEAN and India.