ENTREPRENEUR and Cooperatives Development Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong wants to see a collaboration between e-commerce firms and cooperatives using strategic outlets as self-collection hubs for online shopping.
Sim said that there are now 60 cooperatives that have allowed e-commerce distributors or logistic providers to use their centres or grocery marts as self-collection centres for customers.
He said this after the cooperative at Politeknik Seberang Prai with some 3,500 students became the first self-collection centre for the e-commerce giant – Shoppe in Penang.
"After the pandemic, we noticed a phenomenal rise in digital trade. The culture of purchasing items online is now vibrant and has become part of the country's macro-economic ecosystem," said Sim.
Citing the Politeknik as an example, Sim said that students and the faculty could easily access Shopee items, which are available at the self-collection centre instead of being dependent on courier services only.
"We see cooperatives benefitting from the growth of e-commerce, and we want to see more of such ventures take place."
Sim wants to see 100 cooperatives tied up with e-commerce operators such as Shopee by the year-end, compared to the present 60 cooperatives.
He also hopes that the ecosystem can help offer competitive pricing and drive down the pressure on living costs that consumers are facing now.
After he visited the SMK Taman Sejahtera school in Bukit Mertajam last night, Sim also spoke of exposing secondary school students to business skills at an early age.
He said that cooperatives can liaise with public schools to offer curriculum studies under the subject of an early business school for students.
"This can expose them to the right skills to explore their entrepreneurship skills."
He also wants, as an incentive to the students, for the cooperatives to provide shares to students as a form of encouragement for them to pursue the macro - economic opportunities which such enterprises offer.
"It can inculcate a business mindset in the young."
Cooperatives are defined as a community - driven economic model, and if done well, Sim says that it will drive the three main objectives.
Number one is to provide business opportunities for the communities; to weave unity among them, and to help provide welfare aid to the needy, said Sim.
With a strong grassroots-based economic model, the cooperatives can help drive national unity and not be divided by the polemics of race, religion and politics.
There are now 16,000 registered cooperatives in the country, with some seven million members - a backbone of community-driven economics. - March 14, 2026.
