THEO REILLY SPEAKS TO AMELIA ROZIMAN, CEO OF BUSINESS EVENTS SARAWAK AND FINDS OUT HOW HER TEAM HAS MANAGED TO WIN EVERY BID THEY’ VE PURSUED – SEEMINGLY A SIMPLE BUT EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE STRATEGY.

n the world of bidding for business events, a 100 % success rate sounds like a pipe-dream. Yet, Sarawak – a state in Malaysia with insufficient hotel accommodation and direct flights only to Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei – has achieved exactly that. I met Business Events Sarawak’ s CEO Amelia Roziman to find out what strategy is leading to this success. In short, what Sarawak offers is legacy – the chance for organisers of events to make an actual, lasting difference in the infrastructure

of the region. All with the full support of the government.

BE Sarawak don’ t pursue every event. In fact, they pursue fairly few. Their secret is that they find the intersection between what the local government want to achieve and what the event organisers are looking to accomplish.

As I sat with Amelia at their junglethemed stand at IMEX Frankfurt 2025, she explained that the collaboration between the CVB and the government is paying dividends. In 2024, their target was 100 events. By the end of the year, they had hosted 120. As if to prove the point, in the middle of the conversation, the premier of Sarawak arrives and introduces himself. It is clear that the relationship between events and government is a close one.

Case in point is the World Water Congress 2028. The water infrastructure in rural areas of Sarawak is severely lacking. As of May 2024, the rural water supply coverage stood at just 70.5 %. There are reportedly 9,608

Left: The Sarawak team showcasing their‘ Tribe Spirit’ campaign

households in Sri Aman, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu, Limbang, Sarikei and Miri without access to clean treated water. Business Events Sarawak used this to sell the destination to the World Water Congress organisers, who jumped at the chance to help bring lasting change to the region.

It’ s a win-win. The organisers get to build a legacy and take their efforts where they’ re most needed. Sarawak, in turn, gains an opportunity to patch up some major holes in its local infrastructure.

There is no better summary of Sarawak’ s legacy model than the library mission in Batang Ai. Roziman tells me that, years ago, she was hiking in search of orangutans on the trails of Sarawak. During the trek, her team came upon the remote community of Manga Ukom Longhouse( longhouse is a name for communal living spaces in rural Malaysia). The area was plagued by low literacy rates, with none of the local children finishing secondary school.

BESarawak saw an opportunity. So, in this extremely remote part of Malaysia, they worked to build a community library so that the locals could gain a better education. ICCA then got involved, launching a campaign for the 2020 congress that collected 7,500 books for the new library.

Sarawak’ s formula is simple. Appeal to the desire of organisers to achieve something meaningful. In a sense, it’ s shocking that more lesserdeveloped regions aren’ t using this strategy. Is there any better way to gain the backing of government than to achieve their own goals for them? n