PARTNER WITH TTM
Partner with The True Malaysia
We work with a small number of organisations whose knowledge, reach or presence genuinely improves how Malaysia is understood internationally. Every partnership is reviewed, scoped in writing and disclosed.
The True Malaysia is an independent information platform. It is not a Malaysian government service, not an official representative of Malaysia, and not an agent, broker or adviser for any organisation named on this site.
The photographs on this page are commissioned editorial illustrations. They do not show real partners, real partnership meetings or any organisation's actual premises or staff.
No organisation’s logo appears on this page, and no organisation is named as a partner, because no partnership has been approved.
Principles
How we decide
These five principles decide every partnership. They are the same for an institution, a multinational and a single researcher, and they are not negotiable as part of a commercial discussion.
Selective, not open
We review each approach against whether it improves what a reader actually gets. A partnership that adds reach without adding substance is declined, however it is funded.
Two-way, or not at all
Each side has to be able to name what it is contributing and what it is getting. If the value only runs one way, it is advertising or sponsorship — and we would describe it as that instead.
Written scope before anything appears
What is published, who reviews it, how long it runs, how it is labelled and how either side ends it are agreed in writing first. Nothing goes live on a verbal understanding.
Editorial judgement stays with TTM
A partner can correct a fact about itself and we will act on it quickly. A partner cannot approve, soften or withdraw our conclusions, rankings or comparisons.
Commercial arrangements are disclosed
Where money, sponsorship or in-kind support is involved, the reader is told on the page where it appears — not in a policy document nobody opens.
Pathways
Six ways to work together
Six pathways, each with a different contribution and a different kind of reader benefit. Choose the one closest to what your organisation actually does; the inquiry form asks you to name it, and we will say if a different one fits better.
Institutional and public-interest
Bodies whose published information readers need to reach accurately and in full.
Written for: Statutory bodies, agencies, regulators, industry development organisations and public-interest institutions with official published resources.
What it involves
- Correcting how your remit, procedures and official resources are described on TTM.
- Keeping our links pointed at your current official pages rather than cached or superseded ones.
- Reviewing the sections that describe your area for accuracy, without reviewing our conclusions.
Knowledge and research
Universities, research centres and analysts with original Malaysian work.
Written for: Research institutions, academic departments, think tanks and independent analysts holding primary data or published studies on Malaysian sectors.
What it involves
- Making original research reachable and correctly cited, with its own period, method and limits intact.
- Technical review of a topic area before publication, where the subject needs specialist reading.
- Joint explanatory material that keeps the source data visible rather than summarising it away.
Media and distribution
Publishers and platforms that can carry accurate Malaysian material further.
Written for: Publishers, broadcasters, trade press, newsletters and platforms with an established audience relevant to Malaysian trade, tourism or industry.
What it involves
- Syndication or republication under agreed attribution and an agreed correction route.
- Co-produced explanatory pieces where each side's contribution is named.
- Reciprocal referral, where each side's material genuinely answers the other audience's question.
Sector and market access
Associations, federations and chambers representing a defined Malaysian sector or trade corridor.
Written for: Industry associations, federations, business councils and bilateral or joint chambers with a membership and a published remit.
What it involves
- Keeping your sector's description, scope and official channels accurate on TTM.
- Helping readers understand which body actually handles which question, and in what order.
- Sector explainers that distinguish what your organisation does from what a regulator does.
Destination, culture and events
Organisations presenting a Malaysian place, cultural programme or professional event.
Written for: Destination and cultural organisations, heritage bodies, and the organisers of professional exhibitions, conferences and trade events in Malaysia.
What it involves
- Accurate, dated event and programme information with the organiser's own registration channel.
- Context that explains a place or a tradition properly rather than promoting it.
- Clearly labelled coverage where an event's organiser has supported the work.
Strategic corporate
Companies whose operating knowledge improves an explanation, under full disclosure.
Written for: Malaysian and international companies with substantive operating experience in a sector TTM covers, and the willingness to be named as a commercial participant.
What it involves
- Practitioner input that makes a process explanation correct rather than theoretical.
- Sponsored work, always labelled as sponsored on the page the reader is looking at.
- A written scope that keeps your company's claims separate from TTM's own findings.
Two-way value
What each side is actually putting in
A partnership that cannot be described in these two columns is not ready. Before the first discussion, write your own version of both — including what you would want if the arrangement ended.
What a partner gets
- An accurate, durable explanation of your area that readers reach when they are actually deciding something.
- A correction route: tell us a fact about your organisation is wrong and we fix it, with the change dated.
- Reach among readers researching Malaysian trade, investment, industry and travel, rather than a general audience.
- A clear, written record of what was agreed — useful internally when people change roles.
What TTM gets
- Primary information and specialist review that makes a page right instead of merely plausible.
- Faster access to the current official resource, rather than whichever version a search engine surfaced.
- A named contact who can confirm or correct something quickly when it matters.
- Where the arrangement is commercial, funding that is disclosed and does not touch editorial judgement.
In practice
What a partnership can look like in practice
These are the forms a scope has taken, not products and not a price list. Nothing below is offered as a package, and none of it is available separately from the review and the written scope.
- A reviewed sector or topic explainer, with the reviewing organisation named.
- Primary research or a dataset made reachable, with its period, method and limits kept visible.
- Co-produced explanatory material where each side's contribution is attributed.
- Accurate, dated event and programme information pointing at the organiser's own channel.
- Clearly labelled sponsored coverage of a defined subject, for a defined period.
- A standing correction and verification route for a body's own published information.
- Reciprocal referral between resources that genuinely answer each other's audience.
The same conditions apply to all of them. Every one of these carries the same conditions: written scope, a stated period, visible labelling where the arrangement is commercial, and TTM's editorial judgement unchanged.
Structure
Four relationship models
Four ways a partnership can be structured. The inquiry does not ask you to choose one — it asks what you are proposing to contribute, which usually makes the model obvious.
Reciprocal, no money
Each side contributes knowledge, review, reach or access and no payment passes in either direction. The most common arrangement, and the simplest to scope.
What would you contribute that is not money, and what would you want in return?
Sponsored and disclosed
A partner funds defined work. The funding is stated on the page a reader is looking at, not only in a policy note, and the subject is agreed before the work starts.
What subject are you funding, and are you comfortable with it being labelled as funded by you?
Project-funded
A defined piece of work with a start, an end, a deliverable and a budget — a research write-up, a translation, a set of explainers. It ends when the deliverable does.
What is the deliverable, by when, and who signs it off on your side?
Network and chamber
A membership body connects its members to accurate information and brings back corrections. No permit, approval or introduction is promised to anyone by either side.
Which of your members would this actually help, and with what question?
Integrity
What a partnership cannot buy
This list exists so nobody has to guess, and so an internal stakeholder who expects one of these can be shown the page. It applies to every pathway and every relationship model, including the paid ones.
No partner can purchase any of these
- A ranking, a position in a list, or a favourable comparison.
- A positive conclusion, or the removal of an unfavourable one.
- Official, accredited, approved or government-endorsed status of any kind.
- Introductions to, or influence with, any Malaysian authority.
- Editorial control, pre-publication approval of our findings, or veto over a correction.
- Suppression of a competitor, or exclusivity over a subject.
- Removal of the disclosure that the arrangement is commercial.
TTM is not a government service
It is an independent information platform. It issues no permit, licence, certificate or approval, and holds no delegated authority from any Malaysian body.
A partnership is not an endorsement
Working with an organisation does not mean TTM vouches for its products, services, certifications or claims — in either direction.
Logos require written permission
No organisation's name, logo or mark is used in TTM material without that organisation's written permission, and TTM's own marks require ours. This page shows no partner logos because none has been approved.
Correction rights are retained
TTM verifies independently and corrects its own errors on its own initiative. A partner can supply evidence; it cannot require a change we do not believe is right.
Either side can end it
Every scope states how it ends and what happens to published material afterwards. Nothing is open-ended.
Review
How an inquiry is reviewed
Five stages. Most approaches end at stage two, and that is a normal outcome rather than a judgement on the organisation.
Stage 1: Received
Your inquiry is stored and read by the TTM team. No automated acceptance, and no commitment of any kind at this point.
Stage 2: Relevance check
We ask one question: would this make something measurably better for a reader? If not, we say so and stop. This is where most approaches end.
Stage 3: Verification
We confirm the organisation, its published remit and the authority of the person approaching us, from the organisation's own official sources.
Stage 4: Scope in writing
Contribution, deliverable, period, labelling, correction route and exit are written down and agreed by both sides before anything is produced.
Stage 5: Publication and review
The work goes live with its disclosure attached and a date, and is reviewed on the schedule the scope sets.
Inquiry
Start a partnership inquiry
One form. It asks only what is needed to assess the approach — no budget figure, no personal address, no document upload, and no field that exists to build a marketing list.
Before you send it
- TTM is an independent information platform, not a Malaysian government service and not an official representative of Malaysia.
- An inquiry is not an application and submitting one does not guarantee acceptance.
- Commercial arrangements and sponsored work are disclosed on the page where they appear.
- No partner can purchase a ranking, a favourable conclusion, official status, access to any authority, or editorial control.
- Logo use in either direction requires written permission. No partner logos appear on this page.
- TTM verifies independently and retains the right to correct its own material.
Prefer not to use this form? Use the contact page. A dedicated partnership email address will be published here once a verified Malaysian address exists — we would rather show no address than one that may not be read.
Page last reviewed 2026-10-11.