M’sia-S’pore digital economy framework to boost business

SINGAPORE – Businesses with footprints in Malaysia and Singapore can expect safer and easier transactions in the future following the recently signed framework of cooperation (FoC) on digital economy.

Under the FoC, the two countries will collaborate on key areas such as trade facilitation, data, electronic payments, digital identities, and business and consumer trust.

In a recent session with Malaysian journalists here, Singapore’s Trade and Industry (MTI) Minister Gan Kim Yong said the FoC will facilitate digitalising transactions between countries as well as digital identities and digital invoicing to ease processes of doing business.

“I’ll give you one example. Many years ago, to export to Singapore, you needed to submit many different documents to many departments. Now, it is all digital. If you submit one document, any and every department can access the same document and the same information. Therefore, a single source of truth.”

In addition, he said this is an important step to enhance the traction and attractiveness of the Asean Single Window.

“The Asean Single Window also includes harmonisation of codings, as well as practices and customs processes. Some of these are already in place or in progress.

“If I am an exporter who wants to export to Asean, I only need to register my document with this single window and different countries in Asean may access the same document and information. This is important for trading.”

When asked if Malaysia’s previous political instability affected the trajectory of the FoC, Gan said: “Many of these collaboration frameworks were discussed quite rationally and are beneficial to Malaysia and Singapore despite changes in government leadership.”

“Between MTI and the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry, we agreed to have a ministerial dialogue so that ministers from both sides and officials can sit down, discuss, and build trust, confidence, and understanding between each other and our officials as well. 

“We also agreed to do this before the (Malaysian) election. After the election, we reaffirmed and started the organisation and arrangement for this year’s dialogue session.”

The Asean Single Window signed in October 2003 is an initiative that promotes regional economic integration and exchange of trade-related documents.

Empowering citizens

On Singapore’s part, the republic in 2016 had launched a SG$4.5 billion (RM14.7 billion) initiative known as Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) prior to the pandemic to “future-proof” businesses across 23 sectors.

It includes advanced manufacturing, built environments, food services, retail and hospitality, as well as lifestyle. According to MTI’s Minister of State Low Yen Ling, these 23 ITMs comprise 8% of Singapore’s GDP. 

Other initiatives to increase digital familiarity among its citizens were launched by the government over the last few years and include Seniors Go Digital, Hawkers Go Digital, and Heartlands Go Digital, which were also spurred by the pandemic.

“One thing that came out of the pandemic is that all our citizens and our companies have accelerated the adoption of digital tools. In the face of Covid-19, as we’re worried about infections, we have to pivot away from manual, paper-based, in-person transactions.

“For example, in 2020, as we came out of the circuit-breaker (lockdown), the government quickly launched Seniors Go Digital. We know that our seniors generally are not so digitally savvy. We have an army of digital ambassadors who teach them how to scan QR codes, among others.

“As we do that, we also rolled out Hawkers Go Digital. After two months of the circuit-breaker, with hawkers unable to sell their food due to dining-in restrictions, we wanted to help them develop delivery and e-payment modules because customers may not want to pay cash.”

As for Heartlands Go Digital, launched in October 2020 for mum-and-pop shops, more than 90% of 15,000 Heartland shops adopted at least one form of e-payment within 18 months.

“Within those 18 months, more than 60% of our 15,000 Heartland shops have adopted at least one digital channel, website, and some of them have gone into live streaming. They are of course supported by our digital ambassadors and business advisers,” said Low. – The Vibes, February 13, 2023