Free trade for minnows: how Alibaba gave Malaysia’s e-hub hopes a boost
A pilot project to create a digital trade platform in the Southeast Asian country seeks to help small businesses compete with giants
Globalisation – and the free movement of goods and services that comes with it – will march on with or without the support of the world leaders bickering in Vietnam this weekend over the future path for free trade.
It would appear to be so, at least for the 2,000 or so Malaysian small business owners who have signed up as the pilot users of Alibaba’s electronic world trade platform (eWTP) in the Southeast Asian country – the first of its kind outside China.
Powered by the Chinese e-commerce giant and with the backing of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government, the cloud-based initiative aims to offer these small-time Malaysian merchants minimal tariffs, speedy customs clearance and state-of-the-art logistical support.
With an accompanying bricks-and-mortar logistics hub jointly developed by the Malaysian government and Alibaba – South China Morning Post’s owner – the initiative is touted as having the wherewithal to enable these minnow merchants to ship products from Malaysian speciality “Musang King” durians to bird’s nests anywhere in the world within 72 hours.
