SIBU: 67 people here participated in the two-day Online Marketing Workshop held from March 19 at Tanahmas Hotel here.
The event was officiated by the Principal Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of International Trade and E-Commerce, Mering Wan on behalf of Minister of International Trade and E-Commerce, Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.
In his text of speech read by Mering, Wong said that the workshop in Sibu was the fourth to be held in the state.
Similar workshops had been held in Kuching, Sri Aman, Bintulu, Lawas, Serian and Miri.
“I would like to thank the Ministry of International Trade and E-Commerce (MITeC) for organising the workshops.
“MITeC is a new ministry established in May, 2017 in line with the aspiration of Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg to implement the digital economy strategy in the state,” said Wong.
On business online, he pointed out that there were various internet applications for entrepreneurs to promote their products and services to the public.
He cited e-commerce companies like Alibaba.com which was founded by Jack Ma and also Amazon.com which was founded by Jeff Bezos as proofs of the success of e-commerce.
Last year, Wong said the Alibaba company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to establish an e-hub on the electronic trading platform (eTWP).
Among the initiatives, Wong added, was to train 330 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) supported by MDEC and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) in the country.
In Sarawak, Wong said that the government had provided various infrastructure and facilities to online entrepreneurs such as incubator centres like Borneo 744 and the Tegas Digital Innovation Hub to encourage youths to conduct business online.
Besides that, Wong said there were also grant incentives under the TUBE programme by SME Corp, the eTrade programme by MATRADE, eRezeki and eUsahawan by MDEC and so on for SMEs to start their businesses and be involved in e-commerce.
