GCEL TO HELP MALAYSIA SAVE US$8.9 BLN IN TRADE COSTS

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- A Zurich-based international
public/private non-profit organisation, Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics
(GCEL), said it can help Malaysia save US$8.9 billion (US$1=RM3.08) annually in
trade costs by helping change the country's inefficient logistics industry.

GCEL secretary-general, Dr Mark R. Drabenstott, said its HumaWealth
Programme would give Malaysian businesses a more efficient 21st century pipeline
of commerce, assuring unprecedented ease of doing business anywhere around the
world.

For the past century, he said, economic growth has been founded on
investments in hard infrastructure like roads, ports and waterways but they were
expensive, took a long time to build and must be prioritised in today's fiscal
crisis.

"Moreover, more investment in hard infrastructure alone will never create
the 21st century pipeline of commerce that Malaysian businesses need to thrive,"
he said in his keynote address on "A New Era of 21st Century Trade Efficiency"
here Tuesday.

Drabenstott said GCEL's programme focused on digital soft infrastructure
that connected businesses with the rest of globe electronically and would be
delivered at no cost to end-users through a network of 28 world-class companies
working together and sharing critical trade information.

GCEL's members include leaders in the finance, insurance and technology
industry.

"This industry is the heart of global commerce but is having a 'heart
attack' due to the legacy of fragmentation and trade bottlenecks.

"HumaWealth delivers major benefits to our world, saving the global economy
nearly US$700 billion a year, reducing average unit cost of production by up to
15 per cent," he said.

He said the programme could help Malaysia be more competitive and attract
investment in production facilities to leverage on low operating costs.

Deputy International Trade and Industries Minister, Mukhriz Mahathir,
who was also one of the speakers, said Malaysia, which registered positive
growth in total trade in the first half of this year, would always look for a
better way to increase the country's trade.

"This event comes at an opportune time for us to chart a new path for the
world's economies that rests on a weakened global financial and economic system
as we know it.

"GCEL can play its part in bringing together nations as well as both the
private and public sectors to adopt and implement specific, realistic and novel
ideas to improve the way we do things," he said.

Malaysia, he said, registered 28.9 per cent growth in total trade in the
first six months of 2010 to RM569 billion (US$182.8 billion) compared with the
same period last
year.

Mukhriz said the programme could also help Malaysia's small and medium
enterprises connect with growing markets across Asia and the globe, while
reducing their business operating costs by up to 15 per cent.

-- BERNAMA