Palm | Kelapa Sawit

ONLY a fifth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country are export players, but more companies are expected to conduct online trading globally with the partnership between SME Corp Malaysia Bhd and e-commerce facilitators eBay and PayPal.

SME Corp Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim said a 2009 survey by the Multimedia Development Corp found that 92 per cent of local SMEs have Internet access, of which 53 per cent have Web pages.

"Of this 53 per cent, only 3 per cent use e-commerce portal in their businesses. "There is a lot of potential to increase e-commerce activities among the SMEs by using eBay (marketplace) and PayPal (payment platform)," she said.

The study found that high costs, lack of facilities and skills were seen as barriers for SMEs to conduct business online.

The lack of trust in Internet security was also cited as a factor. Hafsah said some of the SMEs do conduct sales online but when it comes to payment, they would do it offline.

She said a series of seminars organised by eBay and PayPal will be conducted for SMEs throughout the country.

Hafsah said by year-end, SME Corp would be able to see the outcome ofthe initiative in terms of e-commerce adoption by the local SMEs.

eBay chief operating officer Oliver Hua said incentives for Malaysian SMEs include a waiver on insertion fees for the first 100 eBay listings and selected features; and up to 25 per cent discount on fees for the first 100 payments received via PayPal.

He noted the huge opportunities for e-commerce in Malaysia, with 15.8million Internet users and e-commerce growing by 28 per cent last year.

He said the global economic downturn has seen Malaysia's export contracting significantly, but customers in the Western countries are looking for value products from Asia. Hua said Malaysia is the most active export markets in Southeast Asia for eBay, and the total value of goods sold to markets like the US or Europe by Malaysian sellers grew nearly 70 per cent last year.

BT