Malaysia’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) and the National eCommerce Council (NeCC) held recently the National eCommerce Forum, part of government efforts to drive the national digital economy agenda and prepare small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for the implementation of the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) later this year.
Since it was formed in December 2015, the NeCC, which includes 25 ministries and agencies, has initiated various activities and events to spearhead the development of the e-commerce sector in Malaysia, aiming to double e-commerce growth from 11% to 20% by 2020, MITI said in a statement.
DFTZ to go live
With the recent launch of the DFTZ by the government together with Alibaba’s Jack Ma on March 22, 2017, interest has grown among local and international e-commerce players including SMEs on the potential opportunities and challenges to be faced once DFTZ is implemented beginning October 2017, said MITI.
The National eCommerce Forum held July 26 sought to update the industry and educate the public on the work undertaken thus far to drive the national e-commerce agenda, including readiness programs for local SMEs to go on board.
The forum saw the launch of the “Go eCommerce” online platform, a dedicated one-stop business resource online center to guide SMEs in e-commerce adoption. To date, more than 1,000 interested SMEs have already pre-registered with the program, said MITI.
Apart from providing the SMEs a profile of their readiness, the platform also equips them with the knowledge and skills to transform their current businesses into potential e-commerce exports. The platform currently houses over 70 online courses and is expected to grow to at least 200 courses by end of 2017.
The forum also featured presentations and panel discussions by prominent e-commerce players such as JinBaomen, ASIAN-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization, LAZADA Express, and POS Malaysia on how local SMEs can venture into cross-border e-commerce, specifically into China and the ASEAN markets.
Participants were also exposed to the services provided by e-commerce players along the value chain, based on areas of specialization such as e-fulfilment.
“e-commerce is growing rapidly in Malaysia as more people are getting connected to the internet and it has become extremely important in Malaysia’s digital economy agenda,” said International Trade and Industry Minister Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, who is also the chair of the NeCC.
“SME development will remain as the key focus area under the Government’s digital transformation agenda. The DFTZ initiative will focus on providing state-of-the-art platform for SMEs and enterprises to conduct their businesses and services,” he said.
According to the Economic Census 2016, about 98.5% of business establishments in Malaysia are SMEs. Based on the latest quarterly survey by SME Corp Malaysia in Q1 2017, about 27.2% of local SMEs are already selling their products online, out of which 15.6% are for the export market.
NeCC accomplishments
Among key achievements of the NeCC to date include providing, in collaboration with e-commerce players, cross-border e-commerce awareness and training to 5,191 companies, of which 1,637 companies have gone on to list their products and services globally through international e-marketplaces registered with the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation’s eTRADE Programme.
Additionally, since March 2017, MITI, SME Corp. Malaysia, and Google have conducted a series of trainings and education programs in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh called “MyGoGlobal” to help local SMEs enhance their revenue growth by going digital.
For the rest of the year the program will also extend to Pahang, Kelantan Sabah, and Sarawak. To date the program has trained 988 SMEs. Google has further launched a new feature for Malaysia called “Google My Business Website” which allows any SME to create a free, effective, mobile-optimized website from a smartphone in less than 10 minutes.
Since 2016, three regional e-fulfilment hubs have been established in Malaysia by Pos Malaysia, SnT Global Logistics Sdn Bhd, and most recently, YCH Logistics Sdn. Bhd., collaborating with Zalora to set up Zalora’s regional distribution hub in Shah Alam.
The Malaysian Investment Development Authority is currently working with 10 targeted companies to set up their e-fulfilment facilities including Lazada which is supporting Alibaba’s fulfilment activities in this region.
NeCC is also streamlining processing and documentation work to fast-track air cargo clearance at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for business-to-consumer online transactions. MITI and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation are currently working on improving import and export processing by cutting cargo clearance time from the current six hours to just three hours and improving cargo terminal operations from the present four hours to only 90 minutes.
Photo: Intel Free Press
