Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was confident the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) would be the new hub of the digital economy, with more Malaysians, both in the rural and urban areas benefiting from it.
He said the DFTZ could definitely learn from China's e-trade and Alibaba Group's achievements, adding, it saw the future and was fast in embracing the new way to trade in this 21st century.
"I am impressed with Alibaba's achievements. In just 13 years, the company’s transactions have reached 3 trillion yuan or close to RM1.9 trillion (BD 163,492,000),” he said, quoted by Bernama news agency.
"During the Global Shopping Festival last year, Alibaba processed a peak of 175,000 orders per second," he said in a post on Facebook and Twitter today.
Najib made a brief stopover at Hangzhou today to obtain an insight into the operations of the Alibaba Group.
He also witnessed today the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the Hangzhou Municipal Government and the Alibaba Group.
The MoU is among the efforts being undertaken by Malaysia to implement the DFTZ project recently launched by Najib and Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma, who is also Digital Economy advisor to the Malaysian government.
"With the DFTZ, the ecosystem of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship will change and be more inclusive. Expect to see an increase in the value chain and 60,000 new jobs," Najib said.
The DFTZ is aimed at spurring Malaysia's economic growth by providing cross-border e-trade facilities for small and medium companies, which in the past, found it difficult to penetrate the international market.
It will among others, provide an area at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Aeropolis for logistics facilities and storage, and efficiently expedite customs and financing procedures.

Source: BNA