Saturday, May 17, 2008

May Updates

I guess I am at it again... late in my updates. It has been a month since I last posted, but well.. like what Datin Seri Wan Azizah said in the media (albeit on a totally, totally different issue altogether), its better late than never.

May 6 2008
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Honey Dearest and I went for another checkup at Dr Ani's clinic. We found out that Dr Ani is also pregnant and will be delivering at about the same time as Honey Dearest :) It will be her fifth, if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, this is the fifth month checkup and with a scan to be done, I will find out whether Junior will be a going to koleq or to the school at bandar Enstek :) The scan wasn't very clear as Junior seemed to be good at playing hide and seek, but from what we saw, it will most likely be another Idris House member walking down the hallowed halls, heheh :)

May 7 -12 2008
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It's the MIHAS week, the Malaysian International Halal Showcase. For people in my industry, its THE trade show for the year. I have been attending the show for the past two years, and this year the venue is the Matrade HQ at Jalan Duta. I have requested for Kamol (my Thai partner at our Thai operation) to be in KL for the show and he has arrange for his flight to be on the 8th and returning to Bangkok on the 9th.

The first day of the show usually begins with the Incoming Buying Mission (IBM) meeting where local companies are matched with foreign companies interested to procure goods from Malaysia. This year, I have chosen companies from non-tradionational market such as Eastern Europe and Asean countries as the products I am selling normally will have a hard time to penetrate the stringent EU regulations or the complexity of the US markets (maybe later, when all things are in place). Matrade, sensing that they can make a killing in parking fees, charged RM5 per entry and by 10am, the parking lot was already full! It didnt help that the main exhibition halls are erected at one of the bigger parking lots, thus deprieving visitors more parking space.

The meeting for the two days of IBM went well and I made some good contacts and potential business. Kamol arrived at KL Sentral on thursday and I took him direct to the exhibition. Of course, the majority of the exhibitors are SMEs producing the traditional products such as sauces, spices, seafood etc... but we managed to identify a few products that got Kamol excited about its prospect in Thailand.

As always, Kamol puts up at Holiday Villa Subang and with the voucher from my mother-in-law, the price isnt so exhorbitant. For the night, Honey Dearest and I decided to spare Kamol the usual mall fare and we took him for dinner at SS13, where they have a nice "gerai" that serves tasty food. The problem with our "gerai" is that most of them employ cook from Thailand and serves a lot of Thai dishes, so we were careful to order food which has no resemblance to Thai food :)

On friday, after submitting a tender at Royal Selangor Club, Kamol and I went to MIHAS for one last look. I went for friday prayers at the Masjid Wilayah and after prayers, I sent Kamol to KL Sentral for him to take the shuttle to LCCT, en route to Bangkok.

The weekend
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Arrghh.. I was down with fever and flu.

2 comments:

Shahrulmiza said...

ehem ehem... aku terpaksa "chip in" sikit mengenai remarks to "majikan" aku tuh... hehehehe... kami tak buat duit ekk... itu semua angkara kontraktor parking kami yang kekadang mcm "lintah darat"... kalau rasa mahal parking tuh, then pls let us know. Biar kami "bancuh" sket depa tuh... hehehe...

So how's the outcome of your biz meetings in MIHAS? Ada new opportunities? Kalau matching tak menepati keperluan, let us know as well. Kami sentiasa cuba sedaya upaya to improve ourselves. Eh, hantorle some info on your products ke Taiwan. Kat sini frozen food have good potential. Aku selalu gak makan frozen fried rice (locally made) for lunch, memang have a market here. Let me know ekk...

NLN said...

Miga,

Hehehe, memang ramai complain hari tu, parking mahal sgt, sampai RM5. Since the volume dah almost guranteed, tell them tak payah la nak ketuk banyak sangat :)

Ada a few prospects from the last IBM at Mihas baru2 ni and I also spoke to one company from Taiwan. Nanti le, I'll contact you directly to get more information.