Sarawak’s official business events organisation secured 100 business events in 2022 with a projected total economic impact of RM325.3 million (US$69m).
Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) announced that these events are expected to have a direct delegate expenditure of RM177.3 million (US$38m) and tax revenue of RM19.6 million (US$4m). As well as economic impact, the events will also create 25,900 additional jobs in the local area.
These figures mark Sarawak’s business events industry’s third year in fulfilling the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030. One of the industry’s objectives is to align with the PCDS 2030 by focusing on securing sustainable, legacy-driven business events from the six priority economic sectors (manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, forestry, mining, and services) and seven enabler sectors (digital transformation, innovation, education & human capital, basic infrastructure, utilities, transport and renewable energy).
“We stayed on track in securing events of key interests aligned with the Sarawak Government’s objectives of stimulating economic and social growth, while growing our core business, optimising costs and opportunities and strengthening Sarawak’s stakeholder collaborations and talent pool to boost industry competence,” said BESarawak’s chair, Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Karim bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg.
“Through business events, Sarawak is laying the foundation for sustainable development with the intention of leaving a transformative impact on local communities for years to come.”
BESarawak’s CEO Amelia Roziman added, “The Tribe Legacy Sarawak campaign contributed to much of Sarawak’s success in the year. Our central narrative has been unlocking value and accelerating growth by evaluating meetings based on their ability to generate revenue and do good for the world. Sarawak is one of the few in the world to dive into legacy impact as a value proposition and it is proving to help us succeed in securing events that will contribute back to the economy and society.”
The campaign, which is centred around value creation and collaborations, also helped score other notable achievements including Sarawak winning three international film awards for its business events short films, the launch of the International Journal of Business Events and Legacies, 67 industry partners obtaining international event certifications and three Memoranda of Understanding to position Sarawak as a legacy impact destination.
Between 2006 and 2022, Sarawak hosted 1,082 business events with a total economic impact of RM3.23 billion providing more than 258,000 job opportunities to the local communities.
