By Philip Stanfield

Published in the Belfast Newsletter as part of the East meets West series

With an open mind and a keen eye you can learn a lot about a country, its culture and its business from a brief visit to its airports. Working for an export-focused firm, SLA Mobile, I’ve become more than familiar with departure gates and single servings of coffee, milk and sugar.

From Qatar’s Doha International or New Zealand’s Auckland Airport to our very own Belfast City and International Airports – there is a unique atmosphere and experience which speaks clearly of the people, place and culture.

Located some 30 miles from Malaysia’s capital city, the state-of-the-art Kuala Lumpur International Airport is a welcoming and regular sight for me as I commute to our Asian centre of excellence.

With a capacity for up to 35 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo a year, it is a business-focused hub that’s worked hard to claim a place amongst the top 15 busiest airports in the world and the seventh busiest in Asia. It’s about to get a lot busier too with Malaysian Airlines announcing five extra routes this month bolstering it’s connections with India.

It’s a universal truth that connected businesses are better businesses and, just like the island of Ireland, Malaysia relies on fast and reliable air access to underpin trade and investment.

Costing US $3.5billion the world-class airport it is recognised as one of the nation’s key economic strengths, providing vital connections to all parts of Peninsular Malaysia, highly industrialised areas like Shah Alam, and the Multimedia Super Corridor – where SLA Mobile’s Asian operation is based.

The strength and quality of KL’s travel links was an important factor in our decision to set up in the city and it has formed a core element of our blended proposition enabling us to combine our UK and KL expertise into one seamless offering.

Our success in Mobile Internet has been built on innovation, speed of delivery – regardless of timezones – a firm understanding of client needs and clear value for money. In the four years since we opened the KL site, we’ve used it to our advantage to reach into important existing and emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

By blending the very best of the UK and KL, we’ve been able to increase our competitiveness and take advantage of the opportunities to develop and market innovative new products, such as mobile video streaming.

The strong social similarities between the two regions have also worked strongly in our favour, and with English as the first language, you could be forgiven for thinking that the conversations between sites are metres apart not thousands of miles!

Crucially for our understanding of the region, our colleagues in KL are able to share greater insights into the traditions and cultural norms of the markets we are working in, like Ramadan for example.

During the fasting month, the evening becomes a times when people join their families and friends for the breaking of the fast, or “Berbuka Puasa” in Malay. During this month it’s common to find yourself invited to the houses of many Muslim friends and colleagues to break fast with them and their families. Many work places also hold at least one Berbuka Puasa during the fasting month and SLA Mobile held its one last month at one of the local restaurants.

Unique to Malaysia is the concept of the “Open House”, which follows major religious events such as Ramadan and Chinese New Year and encourages people to throw open their house to all guests that want to attend.

The largest period of Open House follows Ramadan in which most Muslims, and most Muslim companies, will announce that anyone is free to come to their placed and enjoy their hospitality, which generally means lots of food as the open house season lasts for a month following Ramadan.

Mind you when I bring friends back to NI they always remark on how well we look after our visitors. On one occasion a colleague excited told me how the manager at her hotel had brought her a compass to give her the right direction for praying and also brought her breakfast at 3.30am before Ramadan started.

While the mobile sector, might be revolutionising everyday communications with technologies like Skype and FaceTime, it’s still a people-focused business and there’s no substitute for client understanding or and face-to-face meetings.

For exporters, we rely on the ease and frequency of air travel to make business connections possible and fill in the gaps that technology cannot bridge. Unfortunately the growth of air traffic in KL is thrown into sharp contrast with the recent announcement that Belfast is to lose one of its biggest operators. The race is on to ensure that the routes it operated are picked up by another carrier and the business sector will be watching more closely than most.

You can learn a lot about a country from its airports. Northern Ireland’s departure and arrival lounges are populated with business travellers eager to take advantage of global trade routes and explore potentially lucrative new markets.

Like KL learned, it’s imperative that we create the opportunities for investment here and for our very best to be exported to the global stage.

There are plenty more passports to be stamped and boarding cards to be checked as Northern Ireland’s economy grows.