Online business set to stay post-COVID-19

KUALA LUMPUR, 29 May 2020 – Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) expects the change in behaviour of consumers and local traders from conventional methods to online business concept will be maintained even after COVID-19 ends.

Its chief executive officer, Surina Shukri, said the main players in the e-commerce sector would leverage on digital capability to increase their presence offline, and thereby further expanding their e-commerce ecosystem.

“Digital transformation will move fast. Businesses, meanwhile, have taken proactive steps to participate in e-commerce to survive,” she told Bernama.

Surina said MDEC would continue its commitment to expedite the adaptation of online business or e-commerce among the local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises through eUsahawan and Go-eCommerce programmes, thus cultivating the people toward digital skills in effort to make Malaysia the heart of digital ASEAN.

She added that since the eUsahawan programme was introduced in 2015, MDEC had trained more than 330,000 micro entrepreneurs till 2019, and this year alone, some 26,000 micro entrepreneurs have been trained.

On products or services that can be undertaken by the entrepreneurs to enable them to penetrate foreign markets, Surina said cosmetics, healthcare, food and beverage, clothing, and souvenirs were among those that can be considered.

However, the entrepreneurs must improve their product quality and produce them first to ensure that they can gain easier access to foreign markets, she added.

According to Surina, among the efforts and initiatives that MDEC had planned to assist the SMEs to penetrate the export markets were ShopeeSG, which will help bring businesses to penetrate the Singapore market via the Shopee e-commerce platform.

Apart from that, the corporation also plans to forge collaborations with JD Worldwide and JDMas Commerce Sdn Bhd to enable local SMEs and entrepreneurs to gain access to the Indonesia market via Malaysia’s official flagship store at JD.com platform.

Meanwhile, Surina said following the closure of Internet centres throughout the Conditional Movement Control Order, registration and training for entrepreneurs in rural areas for ‘Perkhidmatan eDagang Setempat’ (PeDAS) would be carried out online.

She said the module would cover digital marketing on Facebook and Instagram, while being able to start business on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee.

Individuals who are interested can register at http://bit.ly/PeDASRegForm.

PeDAS is an initiative by MDEC to assist rural entrepreneurs market their products on e-commerce platforms with facilities available at the Rural Internet Centres (PID) under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia with the cooperation of MDEC.

– Bernama