Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ)

KUALA LUMPUR: Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma pledges to help turn Malaysia into a regional digital powerhouse that will "redefine global trade".

DFTZ, first free trade zone outside China to be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and technology, is expected to increase SMEs exports to US$38 billion, create over 60,000 jobs and facilitate movement of goods worth US$65 billion by 2025.


It also has the vision to make Malaysia Asia's leading transshipment hub by 2025.

Ma said it aims to continue to support Malaysia, especially the SMEs and micro businesses, to become further globalised with its provision of technology, finance and training into DFTZ.

For example, inducing advanced technology into DFTZ, a similar concept to China's free trade zones which help facilitate multi-billion products in just 100 minutes across the republic, would enable Malaysia to have the capacity to market to at least two billion population globally in shorter time, he added.

"In the past 30 years, global trade has been designed for big companies. This is the first free trade zone that focuses on SMEs and micro businesses.

"It should be a leading model to other free trade zones in other countries. The free trade zone initiative gives a new meaning to global trade," Ma said at the launch of DFTZ First Phase.

Export markets, via DFTZ, have been identified to be Europe, Russia, China and Southeast Asian regions, he added.

Alibaba's Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) forms part of DFTZ to ensure the free trade zone facilitates seamless cross-border trade.

eWTP offers Malaysian SMEs the infrastructure for doing commerce with services encompassing logistics, cloud computing and mobile payment.

Ma said eWTP aims to lower trade barriers and provide more equitable access to markets for SMEs.

"Malaysia is the first country to adopt eWTP initiative outside China. In the future, more of this will be done in other countries to create the global network to facilitate trade for SMEs around the world," he said.

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PETALING JAYA: Over 13,000 cooperatives under the Malaysian National Co-operative Movement (Angkasa) will benefit from MAYA2U, a digital trading gateway built on the collaboration between Sterling Red Sdn Bhd and OBOR Net Sdn Bhd.

Its President, Datuk Abdul Fattah Abdullah, said MAYA2U would enable eight million members under Angkasa to tap into OBORNet’s ASEAN2U e-commerce platform and gain access to 65 One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries.

“This initiative will enable cooperatives in Malaysia and ASEAN to trade with other OBOR countries, starting with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,” he said at the signing of a strategic business collaboration agreement between Sterling Red and OBORNet yesterday.

The collaboration between MAYA2U and ASEAN2U is the first Business-to-Business-to-Commercial (B2B2C) in the country and would provide a one-stop ecosystem to facilitate cross border trading and garner sales growth both domestic and internationally.

He said China’s e-commerce market, estimated at more than US$600 billion, would enable Malaysian cooperatives to expand by collaborating with other enterprises to add customers, product and services offerings.

Capitalising on the newly-launched Digital Free Trade Zone, he said the platform would provide a better logistics service for customers and bridge communication, shed language barriers and culture differences.

“Small and medium enterprises will be enhanced to a higher horizon to meet global, as well as, OBOR countries’ vendors.

“The collaboration between MAYA2U and ASEAN2U will empower us to offer our full services to cooperatives on their growth path with advanced technology at a low cost,” he said.

Moving forward, after gaining access into China, the partnership would see SMEs aiming to enter other markets such as Europe and the Middle East.

Angkasa is the apex cooperative body representing the Malaysia cooperative movement at the national and international level. — Bernama

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KOTA KINABALU: Tan Sri Musa Haji Aman said he has approved an additional allocation as special launching grant for the Ministry of Industrial Development to develop the digital economy in the state.

And, the Chief Minister has expressed the hope that the people would seize the opportunity to benefit from this allocation of RM1 million.

“I hope the youths, many of whom are currently involved in the digital economy and e-Dagang, will take advantage of this opportunity,” he said when opening the ‘Championing Sabah’s Digital Economy’ seminar at Shangri-La’sTanjung Aru Resort and Spa here yesterday.

Musa also said the state government was prepared to adjust policies or regulations to accommodate the methods and ways of doing certain businesses.

“If there is a need for liberalisation of methods and techniques, we are prepared to study and provide ample room for the promotion of applications in the business and trade systems,” he added.

According to him, the state government was business-friendly and that it wished to see more business people in the state.

“The government and business community help each other and will prosper each other,” he added.

Musa, who is also Finance Minister, said he wished to see the business community in Sabah to be on par with the world’s business community.

The government, he said, was taking steps to ensure conducive business environment in Sabah as well as to improve ease of doing business for e-Dagang entrepreneurs.

He said a sum of RM105 million was set aside under the 2018 State Budget for any ministry that needed extra funding to carry out good programmes.

The Chief Minister also said the state government was committed to spurring economic growth including industry, which is one of the key sectors under the Halatuju – a master plan to bring development and progress to Sabah. A sum of RM134 million was allocated under the 2018 State Budget to intensify efforts to promote investment and business opportunities.

Infrastructures at the Sabah Oil and Gas Industrial Park (SOGIP) in Sipitang, Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) in Lahad Datu, Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) in Kota Kinabalu as well as SEDCO would also be further enhanced.

“Overall, I am happy with the Industrial Development Ministry’s success and achievement all this while,” he said. Musa said that in 2016, Sabah attracted investments worth RM3.13 billion and created 5,154 jobs.

And, between 2013 and June last year, he said the state’s cumulative investments in the manufacturing sector stood at RM10.48 billion and generated 11,416 jobs.

“This is a very significant achievement,” the Chief Minister said.

He also said KKIP Sdn Bhd was now exploring new potential sectors to boost further investment and business, “and I believe this effort will provide huge opportunities for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to expand their businesses.”

Musa said he had announced surplus State Budgets ever since he became Chief Minister.

Explaining, he shared that when he was a businessman prior to entering politics, he learned the importance of prudent spending from his Chinese businessman friends who told him, “if you want to do business, never spend more than what you earn”.

Musa also spoke on his trip to China where he met a minister in charge of tourism.

“I was seated next to the minister when I attended a meeting. She had asked me how many Chinese tourists visited Sabah in a year and I told her we have between 400,000 and 450,000 tourists from China every year.

“She said the number was very small and she could double that. So I said in jest why not send one million and she said ‘ok’ but first you make sure you have sufficient hotels and resources.

“So that is an opportunity… Sabahans should seize this opportunity,” he said. Meanwhile, Musa also hailed the Industrial Development Ministry’s efforts to develop the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) at the KKIP.

“This is in line with the government’s aspiration to expand business and to develop Sabah’s SMEs in the digital economy,” he said, adding that this effort would facilitate the export of services and products of Sabah’s SMEs. Musa also disclosed that apart from Singapore, 60 Sabah SME products were being exported to other ASEAN countries and the Middle East.

Also present were Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah who is also Minister of Industrial Development and his deputy Datuk Bolkiah Ismail.

More than 1,000 people participated in the seminar yesterday

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