Ismail said the figure in potential trade and investment was garnered from various memorandums of understanding and letters of intent between 14 Malaysian companies and their foreign counterparts based in China, Egypt, India, Iran, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.

The MoUs cover areas including blockchain and Internet of Things, oil and gas, biotechnology and training in unmanned aerial vehicle solutions.

They also involve the fabrication of 1,000 modular units of green smart homes; exclusive distributorship of unmanned surface vessels, artificial intelligence (AI) driven agriculture systems, and predictive maintenance of project solutions.

Calling it a “positive outcome”, Ismail said the strong momentum is expected to be maintained for the next 25 weeks, anchored by various ministries and agencies, including state governments.

“Malaysia is also confident of surpassing its total target of between RM8 billion and RM10 billion in trade and business deals at this six-month long expo,” he said in a statement.

The Malaysian pavilion at the expo, touted as the world’s biggest event since the pandemic, is designed as a rainforest canopy and themed “Energising Sustainability”. It has recorded about 50,000 visitors from Oct 1 to 14.

The first world expo to be held in the Middle East, Expo 2020 Dubai expects to attract 25 million visitors. It was originally scheduled to be held from Oct 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021, but was postponed to Oct 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 because of the pandemic.