MALAYSIA PUSHING TO IMPROVE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION HOST RANKING

MELBOURNE, March 4 (Bernama) -– Malaysia is working hard to be in the top
five in the ICCA rankings in the Asia Pacific, Zulkefli Haji Sharif, chief
executive of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), said here
Thursday.

ICCA (International Congress & Convention Association) produces rankings by
the number of international association meetings a country hosts.

In the 2008 rankings, Malaysia was placed 32nd in the world and eighth in
the Asia Pacific region. The number one placing in the world in 2008 went to US
and Japan took the honours in Asia Pacific.

The 2009 rankings will be announced in May and Zulkefli is confident
Malaysia will improve its standing.

MyCEB was established in August 2009, taking over from Tourism Malaysia's
convention division, which had the role of promoting business events in
Malaysia for the past three decades.

"Today, MyCEB is a proud member of Team Malaysia, and through this
initiative, we work hand and hand with KL Convention Centre and other key
stakeholders in Malaysia in bids for international business events," Zulkefli
said in a statement.

MyCEB has so far supported 13 convention bids representing 10,150 delegates
involving 47,400 delegate days and generating RM93 million in visitor spending.
It also helped 103 meetings, conventions and exhibitions, and 40 corporate
incentive groups.

Zulkefli attended the two-day 2010 AIME (Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings
Expo) which ended here Wednesday.

--BERNAMA