In conjunction of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and celebrating The Queen’s Baton Relay arriving in Malaysia, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and the UK’s Department for International Trade convened a high-level virtual dialogue on increasing trade and investment between Malaysia and the UK – focussing on the West Midlands region, where the Games will be hosted.

The virtual event, which took place on January 24, 2022, brought together senior business leaders from Malaysia, the West Midlands, and the United Kingdom’s government discussed and focused on the topic of “How can governments best manage public health infrastructure via data-driven analytics, and collaborate with health-tech businesses to deliver a more effective and accessible health service?”

In his keynote remark, Sam Myers, Deputy Trade Commissioner for Southeast Asia said, “The life sciences industry is one of the most important economic sectors in the United Kingdom. Biopharmaceuticals, medical technology, genomics, diagnostics, and digital health are all examples of “health life sciences,” which are the application of biology and technology to improve one’s health. In comparison to other industries, it has a very high productivity and produces a wide range of goods, including medications, medical technology, diagnostics, and digital tools, as well as consumer health items. It is also widely distributed across the whole of the UK and brings significant jobs and growth to virtually every region.”

“Malaysia and the United Kingdom have a long-standing relationship with a trade value of almost £5 billion each year,” he continued. Malaysia is the UK’s second largest export market in Southeast Asia, with around 6,000 UK enterprises exporting goods and services, and there is bigger potential for development, notably in the healthcare sector. Therefore, the roundtable dialogue brought a unique opportunity to further deliberate on investment opportunity.

Serunai Commerce Sdn Bhd was delighted and honoured to have Amnah Shaari, Group CEO and Founder, to be invited as one of the panellists at the roundtable along with all other business leaders. The interactive dialogue, discussed and further deliberated on few strategies that could help the healthcare industries between the two countries. The strategies also seek and addressed a series of challenges under five key areas:

• Science: Continued support for the science base, maintaining strength and international competitiveness. 
• Growth: An environment that encourages companies to start and grow, building on strengths across the UK and Malaysia.
• Collaboration: Government, private and industry collaboration, facilitating better care for patients through better adoption of innovative treatments and technologies. 
• Data: Making the best use of data and digital tools to support research and better patient care. 
• Transparency: Transparent Reporting for Integrated Data Quality. Transparent reporting is achieved when an agency provides clear and detailed documentation so that users can
• assess for themselves the quality of the data
• Skills: Ensuring that the sector has access to a pool of talented people to support its aims through a strong skills strategy.

As businesses and governments begin their recoveries post-Covid, the roundtable dialogue provided valuable insights into how Malaysian and UK companies can collaborate to help shift healthcare systems towards data-driven health. The discussion clearly demonstrated the areas of similarity and highlighted where closer partnerships within the Commonwealth can add real value. 

Tune in to watch the recorded session at: https://youtu.be/HapUyOc9bAc

To learn more about what we do at Serunai Commerce or discuss potential collaboration please visit our website at www.serunai.com