KUCHING, June 4: The ‘Sarawak Digital Mall’ campaign to be run on Shopee will connect local businesses to wider Malaysian and regional markets and bring local Sarawak products such as Bario rice, gula apong and even salted terubok fish to customers’ doorsteps.
This is made possible as Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) together with Sarawak Economic Planning Unit (EPU) has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopee to kickstart the ‘Sarawak Digital Mall’ campaign.
SDEC chief executive officer (CEO) Sudarnoto Osman emphasised that the objectives of the campaign are to promote and give Sarawak’s local products greater exposure, provide bigger opportunities to local sellers and boost the sales of local products and by local businesses.
“This partnership will benefit tens of thousands of new and existing merchants on the platform by offering incentives such as discounts and free shipping vouchers worth RM1 million to the participating merchants.
“With the discount vouchers provided in this campaign, Sarawakian merchants will be able to sell their local products at a more competitive value within the wider Malaysian and regional market, without significant shipping fee as a barrier,” he said in a statement today.
More importantly, Sudarnoto pointed out, the campaign will enhance promotion of local products of which many are not yet widely known due to lack of exposure and accessibility.
Furthermore, it is important for entrepreneurs to start taking their businesses online especially in a time where the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the region has brought almost every industry to a physical halt, he added.
“In this age of technology, everyone prefers to do things through mobile phones or computers. By embracing digitalisation, it opens up bigger opportunities to these sellers.
“This collaboration would encourage digital adoption among Sarawakian SMEs (small and medium enterprises) which is a significant move in line with the government’s Sarawak Digital Economy initiatives where digitalisation of Sarawakian entrepreneurship is the key focus,” he said.
In addition, Shopee will also be helping to bring more local sellers onboard and provide entrepreneurship courses through its Shopee University.
The free online training workshops that are available in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese are tailored to assist participating local merchants on their digitalisation journey with the Sarawak Digital Mall campaign.
Meanwhile, Shopee regional managing director Ian Ho emphasised that they are always striving to empower small businesses, especially those who lack access to tech platforms and the potential they could harness just by going online.
“By teaming up with the Sarawak state government, we are erasing the geographical boundaries between the sellers and customers, allowing access to even those in the Peninsula to goods such as Bario rice, gula apong, salted terubok fish and many more, as we see through on our mission to make e-commerce for all.
“We also understand that Sarawakians who are unable to go home miss Sarawak and its rich cuisine. They can take advantage of vouchers that SDEC provides and Shopee will add on to the assistance with free shipping especially during this 6.6 Awesome Sale.
“This will also help give the participating local sellers a boost in their sales,” he said. — DayakDaily
