MITI mulls boosting B40 income via trade
KUALA LUMPUR: Trade, including e-commerce, can be a potential strategy to boost the income of the Bottom-40 (B40) household income segment, especially among the hardcore poor and at risk groups, says the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Deputy Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming said there were opportunities for small businesses to link directly to the global market.
“Quite often, we hear that open trade and globalisation only benefit big companies, because the fear is that allowing big companies to enter a market will ruin local business.
“But opening up cross-border trade has another narrative, one that is starting to gain more traction,” he said when officiating the launch of the ‘End Poverty Day 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle’ forum here yesterday.
The half-day public forum was co-hosted by the World Bank, the United Nations and supported by
Quite often, we hear that open trade and globalisation only benefit big companies, because the fear is that allowing big companies to enter a market will ruin local business. Dr Ong Kian Ming, Deputy Minister
Yayasan Sejahtera.
Ong said the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation would continue to undertake a great deal of work to bridge the gap and bring small local businesses to the world.
“The idea here is to empower people, even those in rural areas, to take advantage of online and cross-border markets. We need to find strategies for overcoming the (urban-rural) digital divide,” he said.
Ong cited one possibility of overcoming this digital divide is by linking local producers to the online market through an urban intermediary, not a middleman who took a large cut, but a local cooperative or a community representative in the city who would manage the supply chain.
“Another area that MITI through our agency, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, can continue to work on is to incentivise foreign and domestic direct investments for setting up factories and operations in less developed areas.
“We can work with state governments to look into building niche clusters based on local resources and advantages. This is also part of the strategy to narrow the urban-rural divide,” he added.