KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has signed a three-way Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hangzhou Municipal Government and Alibaba Company Ltd to facilitate cross-border trade among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP).
In a statement, MDEC said the MoU seeks to enable the building of infrastructure for seamless cross-border ecommerce trade between Malaysia and China. The three parties agree to work together to explore potential strategic collaborations, consistent with Alibaba’s vision of eWTP.
It said the MoU was a testament to further strengthen the collaboration between the two countries and its companies, and ultimately, to bring Malaysia’s Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) to the next level.
Under the MoU, the parties will collaborate to create linkages between the China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone – the first domestic e-hub, which Alibaba Group played a key role in establishing – and the DFTZ in Malaysia, established by Alibaba and MDEC in March this year, as pilot implementation towards building an e-road for global trade.
MDEC said by leveraging on Alibaba’s Internet technology and big data, the parties would facilitate cooperation between public and private enterprises in Hangzhou and Malaysia to provide easier access to customs clearance, inspection and permit issuance for SMEs to do cross-border trade.
“Malaysia is turning the DTFZ vision into a reality. The focus is clear – we want to help Malaysian SMEs overcome the complexity of doing cross-border trading, remove barriers, support them in realising their full economic potential and ensure that they can also enjoy the benefits of global commerce.
“The eCommerce hubs linking the two countries will allow Malaysian SMEs to conduct global trade with China via Hangzhou port with ease,” MDEC CEO Datuk Yasmin Mahmood said in the statement.
Launched in March 2017, DFTZ will provide physical and virtual zones to support internet companies to trade goods, provide services, innovate and co-create solutions.
The physical zone comprises of the eFulfillment Hub and Satellite Services Hub while the virtual zone consists of the eServices Platform. It has the potential to double the growth of Malaysian SMEs’ goods export by 2025, as well as support US$65 billion worth of goods moving through DFTZ. Additionally, DFTZ is expected to create 60,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2025.
“DFTZ will be a boost to Malaysia’s eCommerce roadmap that was introduced in 2016, which aims to grow the nation’s eCommerce growth and increase the country’s GDP contribution to RM211bil by year 2020,” Yasmin said.
“Alibaba has always been a strong partner in eCommerce for Malaysia. The combined gross merchandise value generated from its various retail platforms such as Tmall and Tmall Global have reached US$57mil to-date. Now our goal is to double that figure,” she added.
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