Kuala lumpur: The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) today announced a comprehensive Strategic Mitigation Plan titled "Resilience through Intelligence" to shield Malaysian exporters from the impacts of escalating global trade friction and geopolitical uncertainty.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the announcement comes as Malaysia records a steady growth of first-quarter trade performance, with exports climbing 12.7% to RM426.53 billion and a trade surplus of RM63.22 billion, marking a 54% surge compared to the same period of last year. Despite this growth, MATRADE's internal monitoring and industry data indicate that 90.5% of manufacturers are currently affected by global disruptions, specifically through rising logistics costs and raw material shortages and MATRADE anticipates the adverse effects can only be felt from second quarter onwards.