53,285 online businesses registered with SSM as of July 10

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Deputy Minister, Datuk Henry Sum Agong said, SSM had organised the SSM-One Carnival (Online Networking Entrepreneurs) nationwide to encourage compliance with business registration and introduction to online businesses which include businesses, corporations and limited liability partnerships.

"At the ministry level, we offer incentives in the form of digital entrepreneurship to small online businesses that focus on aspects of education and skills.

"Training and courses offered by the ministry include field training (on-job-training), simulation, methods of digital marketing strategies through social media and effective online businesses jointly implemented with government agencies, institutes of higher learning, industries, non-governmental organisations and the Malaysian Internet Entrepreneurs Association (PUIM)," he said.

Henry said this in reply to Datuk Mansor Othman’s (PKR-Nibong Tebal) question regarding the latest statistics on online registration and incentives for small businesses that have yet to reap huge profits when compared to big online businesses such as Lazada, 11th Street, Zalora and eBay.

Henry said other agencies also offered programmes and training for small online businesses, namely the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the leading agency to guide Malaysia towards the digital economy and SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp), an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) which helps Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) engage in online businesses.

"MDEC offers e-entrepreneur programmes at selected public Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions nationwide to provide guidance to youth and micro entrepreneurs to use digital and social media platforms to increase sales and expand markets.

"SME Corp also offers entrepreneurial training and online marketing to SME traders and also assists in reducing the participating fees for SMEs in e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and eBay," he said.

Replying to a supplementary question regarding the allocation to those who are just starting an online business, Henry said the ministry under the supervision of SSM had also established a ‘Young Entrepreneur Go’ programme to encourage students to venture into business as well as to raise awareness about the importance of business registration and proper business management.

"The programme, which came into effect on Jan 1, offers free business registration to students of higher learning institutions keen to venture into business and the government channelled a grant of RM10 million into it, of which there is still a surplus of RM199,903," he said.