The interest from business event organisers in staging big expositions in Sabah is growing, said state Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.

"Now, one of our goals is to expand Sabah's presence in the business events market.

"The Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) has paved the way for Sabah tourism to expand this offering, giving our convention centre a competitive advantage in hosting large business or MICE events," he said during the launch of Tourism Malaysia's engagement session with Sabah tourism industry players at a hotel here.

The Sabah Tourism Board (STB) chairman said business events could attract domestic and international tourists to the state.

He added that Tourism Malaysia could assist STB in engaging key players in the global business event market. Joniston said his ministry had received requests from event players to conduct conferences or exhibitions in the state.

The most recent is the Asia Dive Expo, or ADEX, which is planned for next year.

To prepare industry players with required skills to organise events, Joniston said a Congress Certification Programme 2.0 Advance Masterclass was recently conducted, in which 22 participants were certified.

This brings the total number of certified individuals to 88.

Joniston said STB aimed to train 200 people by 2025.

Present were STB chief executive officer Noredah Othman and SICC chief executive officer Datuk Rosmawati Lasuki.