Wong hopes event will stir interest in e-commerce

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Hisham (second left) presenting a souvenir to Wong as others look on.

SIBU: International Trade and E-Commerce Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh hopes that the ‘BeliBeli24 Summit 2018’ will inspire more Sarawakian e-commerce players to rise to the national or even the international stage.

Speaking as the guest of honour at the opening of ‘BeliBeli24 Summit 2018’ at the Civic Centre here yesterday, Wong hoped the summit would assist in transforming traditional businesses into online businesses.

“To all Sarawakians, we must not delay, let us begin the digital revolution here in Sibu today.

“This is also in line with what Hisham has clearly mentioned earlier on, that if we are not online today, we are invisible tomorrow,” he pointed out, referring to Mohd Hisham Khairul Nasir, managing director of Solaku Enterprise.

Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King and deputy chairperson Rogayah Jamain were at the function.

Wong reminded that the digital economy revolution had started in Malaysia and Sibu was no exception.

“What BeliBeli24, which is under the dynamic leadership of our young digital entrepreneur Hisham and his team, has done is very much in line with our Chief Minister’s vision for digital economy that is essential for our current and future economic growth.

“So, how can digital technologies make Sarawak a better state? It is by providing business with opportunities to share and develop new ideas and innovations, opportunities to create uncontested market to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the community,” he said.

Wong added that Malaysia’s rapid growth in various fields despite the challenges showed that the nation was on track to achieve its goal of becoming a high-income nation within the next few years.

“We must take full advantage of digital technologies so that Sarawakians’ businesses will not miss out on the chances to further expand and create jobs,” he said.

Wong added that the theme of this year’s BeliBeli24 Summit ‘The Digital Economy Revolution Starts Here In Sibu’ rang well as we Sarawakians must begin to embrace industry 4.0.

“We are pleased to see a small local Sibu start-up, the BeliBeli24, organised this summit to gather important catalysts to kick start the revolution here in Sibu.

“The gathering (‘BeliBeli24 Summit 2018’) today brings forth the various government agencies, ecosystem influencers and industry leaders from across the country and abroad to collaborate and chart the way forward for entrepreneurs towards accelerating developments in the digital economy for Malaysia as a whole and Sarawak in particular,” he said.

Wong, who is also Second Minister of Finance, also said Sarawak was proud to have young digital economy entrepreneurs like Hisham who has earned a place in the Top 3 among 500 businesses under 1Malaysia Entrepreneur (1MET) start-up at the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017, held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from December 12 to 13 last year in which selection was based on performance and idea of the start-ups.

Meanwhile, Hisham said the inaugural ‘BeliBeli24 Summit 2018’ was actually a gathering of their vendors as well as prospective vendors who wished to join their growing platform.

Besides showcasing their vendors, the summit also held forums, speeches and various other activities such as blood donation drive, baby crawling contest, the TOP BeliBeli24 Customers Awards, educational seminar, poster colouring contest for secondary schools and colouring contest for primary schools.

“Besides that, we also invited guests such as the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) which is the government-owned institution responsible for the management of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia), Shopee which is the leading online shopping platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, FundedByMe which is a crowd funding portal based in Stockholm, Sweden and Kodinar Berhad, a company under the Financial Technology (Fintech) Malaysia,” Hisham said.