Govt creates digital ecosystem to drive e-commerce adoption by SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR: The government, through various ministries and agencies, has implemented several programmes and created a conducive digital ecosystem to encourage the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to implement e-commerce.

The programmes focused on increasing the capacity of SMEs to penetrate the export market through collaborations with wellknown e-commerce platforms like Alibaba, Facebook and Google, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

“The e-commerce industry is expected to gross up to RM114 billion come 2020, or 6.4 per cent, of the nation's gross domestic product compared to RM68 billion, or 5.9 per cent, in 2015,” MITI said in a written reply to Datuk Shabudin Yahaya (BNTasek Gelugor) at the Dewan Rakyat here yesterday.

MITI said since the establishment of the National eCommerce Council (NeCC) in December 2015, some 450 SMEs had benefitted via the eTRADE programmes in 2016 compared to 198 in 2015, an increase of 127 per cent.

The NeCC comprised 22 ministries and agencies which were involved directly with the e-commerce agenda, it said.

The ministry said it would launch the eCommerce Academy, a one-stop centre for SMEs to obtain information on e-commerce, including training modules, online payment and logistics.