E-commerce industry to grow 30 pct annually in next 3-5 years, says Pikom

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (The Borneo Post) --: Malaysia’s electronic-commerce (e-commerce) industry is expected to grow by between 20 and 30 per cent annually in the next three to five years.

E-COMMERCE: Malaysia’s electronic-commerce industry is expected to grow by between 20 and 30 per cent annually in the next three to five years.
“The growth will be driven by the readiness of infrastructure, availability of online services, broadband maturity and a strong awareness of e-commerce,” said National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom) chairman, Wei Chuan Beng.

Wei told reporters this after the launch of the National ICT Month 2010 (NIM 2010), themed “e-Commerce for Global Reach”, by Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili.

He said for this year, e-commerce was expected to grow by 32 per cent to US$29.24 billion (US$1=RM3.16) from US$22.15 billion in 2009 amid a stabilising growth rate in the past few years.

Wei urged financial institutions to lower the fees of e-payment, which were currently higher than the manual payment, to boost the e-commerce activity in Malaysia.

Earlier, Ongkili said the 10th Malaysia Plan has identified the information and communication technology (ICT) sector as one of the 12 National Key Economic Areas and its contribution to economy was expected to increase to 10.2 per cent by 2015.

“Thus, we envisage the ICT to be massively deployed to bring about productivity enhancements, service level improvements and innovation throughout businesses, government and consumers alike,” he said.

At the same function, Ongkili also launched the Leadership Summit 2010, which gathers business and technology leaders to discuss and deliberate on issues related to ICT industry.