Sabah develops own virtual marketplace 

KOTA KINABALU – Sabah will develop a virtual marketplace portal to assist Sabah SMEs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Joachim Gunsalam said the marketplace is now being developed under his portfolio, the Industrial Development Ministry. 

“The state government is in the process of developing an entrepreneur portal that will provide detailed information of entrepreneurs in Sabah,” he said here today. 

“Expected to be completed by next year, the portal will be handled by the Industrial Development Ministry and can be accessed by all ministries and agencies with entrepreneurial development programmes.”

Gunsalam said the ministry will also be working with other platforms such as GoNet, with whom it is developing a section called GoBiz that provides marketing services for products and services from Sabah for free. 

“The ministry will continue to collaborate with the private sector to promote and market Sabah products through private marketplace platforms such as Tamuku and My Borneoshop,” he said.  

According to him, another company, Sedcovest, is also working together with an online business application developer from Sabah to market and conduct transactions for local products through similar virtual platforms like Lazada and Shopee. 

“Through this collaboration, some 2,000 entrepreneurs are expected to utilise the platform within the next three to five years,” he said.

He also announced a collaboration with the Sabah Small Industry Digital Entrepreneurs Association to market Sabah SMEs products through Epasar Sabah, Shopee Malaysia, BorneoKaki, and ShopDirect. – The Vibes, November 26, 2020.