KUALA LUMPUR: The government expects the yet-to-be implemented Digital Free Zone (DFZ) initiative to help push the country's digital economy gross domestic products (GDP) contribution to 20 per cent by 2020, from the current 17 per cent.
“Contributions of the digital economy to the GDP as of now is already at 17 per cent, the challenge is now to accelerate this process in tandem with the rapid speed in which the world is digitising,” said Ministry of International Trade and Industries (MITI) deputy minister, Datuk Chua Tee Yong in his keynote delivery at the Digital Economy Forum 2016, today.
“We believe that technology can work as an enabler rather than just competition for the brick and mortar shops, that's why the government has been very adamant in pushing the agenda.”
He later explained to reporters what exactly the DFZ, as announced in Budget 2017, entails.
“The DFZ looks into reducing the tax structure to enable these firms to streamline their processes when taking their businesses online, as we know e-commerce is growing rapidly and will hit 20 per cent contribution to the GDP by 2020,” said Chua.
"Another item we're looking at via our e-commerce initiative is the logistics side because when many people talk about e-commerce, they look at the digitisation and the listing - but the key part is also the delivery.”
The DFZ guidelines are still being finalised and will be announced as soon as possible, said Chua, without elaborating further.
The Malaysian e-commerce market has grown steadily over the years; the local e-commerce GDP contribution is at 5.8 per cent currently, versus China (21 per cent) and the United States (35 per cent).