Almost 2,000 SMEs have registered to join DFTZ, says Najib

KUALA LUMPUR: The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) has attracted the participation of close to 2,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
He said the total number had surpassed the initial target to rope in 1,500 SMEs to be involved in the free trade zone which will be operational this Friday.
"These SMEs are able to access the global market especially the market in China, which is a huge market," he said during the TN50's e-Entrepreneur Dialogue here today.
Also present were Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Rahman Dahlan, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh and Malaysia Economy Digital Corporation (MDEC) Chief Executive Officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood.
Meanwhile, Yasmin said a digital platform had been developed especially for DFTZ to facilitate the SMEs to export their products via the trade zone.
She said the platform would start operating simultaneously with DFTZ and the participating SMEs were already given training.
Besides optimising trade through e-trade, the DFTZ was also targeting to double the cross-border trade growth by local SMEs.
On eUsahawan, Yasmin said since it was introduced in 2015, the programme, organised by MDEC, had successfully trained more than 100,000 participants and generated additional sales of worth over RM136 million.
Based on this achievement, MDEC had targeted to double the sales next year, she added. — Bernama