40 APAC / South East Asia Business Awards 2021 , Best Bilateral Business Services Provider – Malaysia MalaysianDutch Business Council (MDBC) is a bilateral chamber of commercewithmore than 250 corporatemembers, focusing on providing business services, representation, and networking. It forges business ties betweenMalaysia and theNetherlands andworks in close partnershipwith theNetherlands Embassy inMalaysia andwith theMalaysian authorities. Considered one of themost active councils inMalaysia and acknowledged as a ‘best-in-class’ leader among Dutch Business Hubs globally, MDBC has the audacious goal of becoming the best business chamber in theworld, providing lasting value to itsmembers. While MDBC hasn’t really changed its core values (entrepreneurial, independent, accessible, responsible, service oriented) since its foundation in 1996, it has been able to more solidly define them, honing in on its strengths, and increasing the breadth of services offered. Throughout its journey so far it has always focused on the value of the membership, ensuring that Dutch companies interested in doing business in Malaysia (and via Malaysia with the wider ASEAN and Asian Region), or Malaysian companies looking to Dutch and European shores, have a soft landing with the tools and resources they need to ensure the best start they can get to hit the ground running. For Dutch companies looking to start-up/expand into Malaysia, MDBC advises them on start-up, offers market research, puts them in touch with relevant agencies, matches them with the right service providers for their needs, and supercharges their business networking via its regular and informative events, trade missions, exhibitions, and matchmaking sessions. MDBC is well known for being professional and friendly; it exists to lend a helping hand. Its community is a close knit business family which enables members to approach it for help and guidance. It means that MDBC invests in its relationships with each member, personalising and strengthening the bond with each interaction. Knowing them this well adds motivation for the council to work that much harder on their behalf; it wants to see them succeed because it knows that strong, successful members mean a strong and successful business and membership community. Much like the rest of the world, MDBC’s business has shifted to remote working. It ensured that all staff had the hardware and support they needed to work from home. To help combat the feeling of isolation, it started daily mini team meetings which were an opportunity for the team to see each other during the lockdown, as well as catch-up on work for the day, and from time to time, a little gossip. It also relies heavily on the office chat programmes to message, call, or video call each other throughout the day, keeping the lines of communication open. Almost overnight, MDBC switched from in-person events to online webinars and meet- ups, finding new ways to allow the community to participate in business networking. It knew that everyone else was doing webinars so it wanted to ensure that in addition to delivering the top quality, fun and informative events it always has, it also delivered webinar events that stood out from all the rest. There were ‘non-traditional’ webinars such as cooking and exercise/ medical webinars. It even started a friendly exercise competition MDBC app to encourage members to keep their activity levels up during the lockdown, actively encouraging each other to stay healthy. MDBC’s biggest effort has been to launch the MDBC Village – its virtual reality directory. MDBC members have a booth in this online space where guests can visit, learn more about them and their offerings, watch videos, pick up e-brochures, talk to company representatives live, catch livestreams of MDBC and members’ webinars, visit the MDBC message board (Discord), drop name cards, and leave messages for member companies. Once a quarter, MDBC organises the MDBC Connects Fair, a daylong event with live cast informative talks, networking, and other activities. Exhibitors commit to having a representative present during the day for live chats so visitors to the Village looking for service providers can find the right match for any multitude of their business needs, all under one (virtual) roof. The Village is free to visit and open to all, worldwide at www.vrexhibition. vruniverse.com.my. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, 2021 is a special year for MDBC, which isn’t just about acknowledging its achievements in the past 25, but also about looking forward and continuing to build on this strong foundation it has established. As part of the celebrations, it is expanding the 2021 edition of its MDBC Innovation & Sustainability Awards (MISA) to include dedicated awards for outstanding Dutch investors and entrepreneurs in Malaysia, and also for outstanding Malaysian investors in and exporting companies to the Netherlands. Company: Malaysian Dutch Business Council Contact: Marco Winter Email:
[email protected] Website: www.mdbc.com.my Jun21045