Industry players expect more digital innovation
KUALA LUMPUR: Digital marketplace players are hopeful that measures outlined in the 2017 Budget, such as the development of an e-commerce ecosystem and Digital Free Zone can further bring innovation in this space.
Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) group managing director Zainal Abidin Jalil said as a whole, the initiatives will contribute to ease of doing business for the country and ultimately the whole economy.
“The economic growth forecast of four to five per cent next year will be able to positively drive an increase in trade volume for the country.
“In Malaysia, the backbone of the trade eco-system is the National Single Window for trade facilitation, a single window system that allows customs-related electronic transactions and duty payments, and electronic document transfer between members of the trading community,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Zainal Abidin said with such a system, the trading community can save time and cost, gain competitive edge, improve efficiency and productivity, and at the end of the day improve their bottom line.
Besides that, 11street Malaysia chief executive officer Hoseok Kim said through focused interventions, such as the National e-commerce Strategic Roadmap Overview — that aims to accelerate the adoption of ecommerce by brick-and-mortar sellers — small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can potentially double its growth beyond 11 per cent.
Kim said over the years, e-commerce has matured from the purchase of big ticket items to smaller ones such as household products and even groceries.
Despite the increased subsidy of almost RM10 billion, Malaysians ought to still be resourceful and find other means to help stretch their ringgit.
He said the first is the variety of products consumers can conveniently purchase online, therefore minimising external cost factors such as petrol, toll and parking.
Secondly, with e-commerce becoming more popular among technologically-savvy consumers, SMEs and individual sellers can buy in bulk and resell them at significantly lower prices.
The National ICT Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) chairman Chin Chee Seong, in echoing Zainal Abidin, said the announcement of higher broadband speeds at existing prices and plans to reduce prices at double the speeds is long overdue.
While allocations of RM1 billion have been made to ensure that broadband speed hits 20 megabytes per second nationwide, PIKOM hope the implementation will be swift.
Further, Chin said, provision of RM2500 lifestyle tax relief for various items including smartphones and tablets and broadband purchase is spot on.
The focus on ecommerce and startups also bode well for the industry will serve as a catalyst for further growth and PIKOM will continue to emphasise the need for ICT goods and services to be zero rated under GST as a means to help the rakyat.
Today, these are necessities that everyone uses and providing some form of subsidy or relief would have gone a long way in helping the man on the street, he said.