SEPANG: Seventy manufacturers participating in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) SME Onboarding Programme have so far generated RM52.1 million in sales under the eTrade Outcome Assessment 2017, with exports worth RM18.1 million, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

Mustapa said he was impressed to see that to date, 2,651 SMEs had come board the DFTZ platform from 1,970 SMEs last November.

“Six months have passed since DFTZ went live in November 2017 and I am happy to note that the progress of the SMEs participating in the DFTZ platform has been encouraging in terms of marketing their products onto the world’s stage.

“This is despite our delayed start to move into the digital commerce, compared with China which has worked 10 years to achieve where they are now,” he told a press conference after visiting the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Air Cargo Terminal 1 (KACT1) here on Monday.

Mustapa said the DFTZ would be a game changer for Malaysia in striving to become an e-commerce hub and urged players on board to aggressively promote Malaysia, not only as a country to source for products, but also a tourist destination.

He said the digital economic agenda remained an important feature in the Barisan Nasional’s manifesto and believed that the DFTZ, among others, would continue to provide huge opportunities for SMEs to increase their exports to the global market.

“We target to achieve one million digital entrepreneurs, and have been working hard in the past two years to ensure that the momentum grows alongside the programmes conducted by various agencies, including Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, SME Corporation Malaysia and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation.

“This year, we aim to have 500 SMEs each from Sabah and Sarawak to join the DFTZ platform, as part of the government’s inclusive effort to help Bumiputera SMEs through the RM50 million allocation under the WIRA eDagang DFTZ initiative announced recently,” he said.

Mustapa urged all stakeholders to continue focusing on producing quality digital entrepreneurs, as more works needed to be done in terms raising the level of efficiency, delivery, management response time and the quality level of the SME products and services. – Bernama