A wide cross section of Malaysia's food and beverage industry visited the 25th Malaysia International Packaging and Labelling, Food Processing and Bakery Equipment and Plastic, Mould and Die Exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend.

"The exhibition is a platform for entreprenuers, trade visitors and buyers to discover the latest machinery, technology and skills in the industry," said ES Event Management Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Chong Chong Tik at the launch of the event last Thursday.

"We expect a turnout of 15,000 trade visitors from the Asia-PAcific region to visit the exhibition," he said.

More than 400 companies participated in the event, occupying 800 booths covering the 16,000sq m of Hall 1 and Hall 2 of the Putra World Trade Centre.

Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong urged Malaysian exporters to look beyond the country's borders and immerse themselves in the global marketplace in order to boost their businesses.

"It is very important for the local players to grow and become globally competitive, through product innovation and improved productivity, as well as venturing into the global market," he said in his speech, which was read out by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation deputy chief executive officer Datuk Dzulkifli Mahmud.

He said the ministry has been engaging in various efforts to increase the opportunities for Malaysian companies to export globally.

Among the efforts are the establishment of the Asean Free Trade Area and also the Asean China Free Trade Area. Lee said the Asean Economic Community (AEC) would be set up next year.

"Asean is an important market with 600 million people and it took up about 28% of Malaysia's total exports last year. China and Asean have a combined market of 1.8 billion people," he said.

He added the Government realised that Malaysia had to keep expanding into bigger markets.

"In order to do so, Malaysia, together with other Asean countries, has been engaging with our six free trade agreement partners, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand to launch the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

"This will result in the birth of one of the world's largest tree trade agreements and presents huge opportunities for Malaysian companies to access a market of more than three billion people. These initiatives will open up the opportunities for Malaysian exporters to access these huge markets," he said, adding that Malaysian companies are encouraged to explore business opportunities in the countries that are the country's partners in trade ageeements.