KUALA LUMPUR: SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) expects global market penetration by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to rise to 22 per cent this year from 19 per cent in 2005, its chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim said yesterday.Following the anticipated increase, she hoped SMEs would transact their businesses via e-commerce and not the conventional way of trading.
“Now 92 per cent of the SMEs have access to the Internet, of which 53 per cent have their own webpages,” she told reporters after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between SME Corp, eBay and PayPal.
“There is already an opportunity for them to transact on-line. But only three per cent of the 53 per cent carries out the full trading online. The rest stop the online usage when they reach the requests for invoice and quotation stage,” she said.
eBay is the world’s largest online market place while PayPal enables online payments to be sent and received securely, easily and quickly.
Hafsah said SME Corp’s collaboration with eBay and PayPal would be a platform for micro enterprises in rural areas to conduct business-to-consumers trading.
In order to garner a wider audience, she said SME Corp would take the seminar for SMEs hosted by eBay and Paypal on a nationwide drive for the year.
“We hope by year-end, we’ll be able to see the outcome of the Malaysian SMEs online presence and the value of transactions done,” she said.
Earlier, in his speech, Jeff Liao, eBay Greater China, Southeast Asia and Japan chief executive officer, said Malaysia had tremendous potential with 15.8 million Internet users and e-commerce expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 28 per cent from 2006 until 2010.
He said the total value of goods sold to overseas markets like the US or Europe by Malaysian eBay sellers alone grew by 67 per cent in December 2009 compared with a year before.
On PayPal, Liao said Malaysia was a fast-growing market for the service and it also offered two new services with the introduction of the Malaysian Ringgit and a new bank withdrawal feature.
At the same event, Oliver Hua, eBay Greater China, Southeast Asia and Japan chief operating officer said to encourage SMEs to start selling on their platform, there would be a waiver of insertion fees for the first 100 eBay listings and selected features.
“But in comparison to the financial potential, their profit margin will dwarf whatever incentives we offer,” he said.
Meanwhile, PayPal Southeast Asia and India General Manager Mario Shilashki said the online payment service was also offering up to 25 per cent discount on fees for the first 100 payments received via PayPal. — Bernama