Najib: Govt to provide incentives to spur e-commerce growth

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will improve infrastructure and provide incentives to start-ups to spur growth in the e-commerce sector.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said towards this end, the High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) services will be upgraded.
"We are also extending the tax exemptions for five plus five years to approved start-up firms to explore and grow in the e-commerce sector," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Najib was responding to a supplementary question by Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang), who had asked him to state the challenges and limitations faced by the government on expanding the e-commerce sector in Malaysia.
"We need to make it (HSBB) faster and definitely more accessible to people all over the country," he said.
Najib said it is important to continue creating awareness on the digital economy among the people.
"We are trying to make people aware that the potential for growth is really big and many Malaysians can make a good living by exploring the e-commerce sector," he said.
Najib had recently launched 1,972 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to operate in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), which would facilitate SMEs to capitalise on the convergence of exponential growth of the internet economy and cross-border trade.
He said the DFTZ would increase the export of SME goods to US$38 billion (RM160.25 billion) and create over 60,000 employment opportunities.
"We want DFTZ to be one of the iconic projects because the digital economy contributes 18.2% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to grow to 20% by 2020.
"So far, we have received a very encouraging response for our eRezeki and eUsahawan programme," he said.