The reopening of Malaysia's borders is crucial for business recovery, a leading events bureau said.

The Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) noted that it planned to organise a total of 81 business events for this year, with around 113,700 delegates expected to visit Malaysia.

This, it said, had the potential to contribute to a total of RM834 million in estimated economic impact.

MyCEB chief executive officer Datuk Sri Abdul Khani Daud said since its establishment, the bureau has successfully secured more than 2,600 events, bringing in more than 1.3 million international delegates.

This, he said, translated to a RM17 billion estimated economic impact from the year 2010 up to this year.

"The reopening of Malaysia's border to international visitors especially the business events industry will allow economic activities to rejuvenate in its entire spectrum from businesses, investments, conferences and exhibitions.

"In this regard, MyCEB and the business events industry support the National Recovery Council's statement that the government should set a definite timeline for the reopening of the country's borders to restore economic activities, including trade, industry, investment and tourism," he said.

Abdul Khani added that MyCEB welcomed the statement as reopening the borders would allow Malaysia to play host to numerous international and regional business events.

"Allowing international delegates to attend these activities will certainly benefit not only the organisers but also the industry and the nation.
"The government's earlier initiatives such as the Langkawi International Tourism Travel Bubble and the Singapore-Malaysia Vaccinated Travel Lane have proven that the country can move towards careful reopening," Abdul Khani said.

Later this month Malaysia will host the World Congress of Nephrology which usually attracts around 5,000 delegates. However, the border closure has restricted the interest of international delegates attending the event in Kuala Lumpur.

"It was reported that the event will continue as planned in a hybrid format with high registration from the local expert community which has been encouraging.

"Imagine, if our borders are reopened in a safe and responsible manner we will be able to have this interaction between national and international delegates during this event.

"When business events are allowed to operate at the end of last year, we saw that the industry had kickstarted with various events nationwide.

"We believe this is time for us to move forward and welcome the international delegages," he said.