KUALA LUMPUR: Initiatives like the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) are tools to prepare the young people for jobs that do not even exist yet, said Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The DFTZ, according to Najib, was expected to create 60,000 jobs, facilitate US$65 billion worth of traded goods by 2025, double trans-shipment and cargo volume for Malaysia by 2025.
“The digital economy is the fastest growing sector in our economy. It currently accounts for 18.2 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is expected to grow and contribute 20 per cent to our country’s GDP by 2020.
“I am grateful that the DFTZ, which the previous BN government had worked to conceptualise and launch in record speed together with Alibaba, has not been cancelled by the Pakatan Harapan government,” he said in his Facebook posting today.
Alibaba Group opened its Kuala Lumpur office today, marking a new chapter in the company’s deepening strategic cooperation with Malaysia, which is the first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub outside of China.
In a statement, the e-commerce giant quoted Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng as saying that the eWTP, together with DFTZ, would encourage more Malaysian small and medium enterprises to participate in e-commerce and increase their exports to other countries in Asia and beyond. - Bernama