I would like to thank Alibaba for inviting me to introduce the development practice of Malaysia's digital free trade zone. I am from Malaysia Digital Economy Development Authority. The Digital Economy Development Bureau mainly has the following functions: First, expand investment. On the one hand, it attracts investors to invest in Malaysia, and on the other hand, it helps Malaysian technology companies go overseas; second, it builds an industry-driven digital ecosystem. We cooperate with other government departments and companies to promote the development of digital economy industries such as e-commerce, Internet of Things, and big data; thirdly, to establish key participating sectors of the digital economy; fourthly, to promote the inclusive application of technology.
Establishing a digital free trade zone is Malaysia's national strategy
Let me first introduce the general situation of e-commerce in Malaysia. We can see that there are many different players in the e-commerce business in Malaysia, with different positioning. Malaysia is a relatively small market. In 2016, the contribution rate of e-commerce to GDP in Malaysia was 6.1%, and it is expected to rise to 12% in 2020.
The digital free trade area is Malaysia's national strategy. The goal is to help Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises go to the world through the e-commerce window, while helping global brands and e-commerce platforms enter the ASEAN region, making Malaysia a regional e-commerce development center. Among them, the first is to help small and medium-sized enterprises go global, which is one of our visions, so we must lower the threshold for e-commerce access and achieve trade facilitation. Therefore, Malaysia and Alibaba have established a strategic cooperation, and Alibaba is an important catalyst for Malaysia to realize this vision.
In November 2016, when Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Jack Ma met in Beijing, they discussed how to help Malaysian SMEs to go global through the Global Electronic Trade Platform (eWTP). After the meeting, the cooperation between the Malaysia Digital Free Trade Zone and the Ali e-commerce platform began to advance rapidly. In November 2017, the Malaysia Digital Free Trade Zone was launched.