20 November 2021, Shah Alam – Menteri Besar of Selangor YAB Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari today officiated the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention with the support of Affin Bank Berhad (AFFIN BANK) as the main sponsor.
Dato’ Seri Amirudin in his speech today said the Selangor State Government, through Sidec, has implemented various digitalisation programmes to assist SMEs and businesess to recover from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
“I am proud to detail some of the successes achieved by Sidec this year. The Selangor State Government through Sidec has organised four E-Bazar campaigns, namely E-Bazar Raya 2020, E-Bazar 11.11 Mega Sales, E-Bazar CNY 2021 and E-Bazar Raya 2021.”
Most sellers, he said, showed how their sales doubled and even tripled after joining the E-Bazar campaign.
“I am also happy to note how Haji Mohd Ghazali Anuar of Baiworld Kitchen is another who has benefited from the campaign. Selling various products such as bitter gourd chips and sambal, he previously only managed to sell 60 to 70 units per day.
But after joining this year’s Selangor E-Bazar Raya campaign, his sales more than doubled, with a gross income of RM3,000 daily. He was also able to help smallholders in his area by buying their produce such as bitter gourd and also opened up job opportunities for the less fortunate in the village.”
Apart from the E-Bazar campaign, the Selangor government continues to uplift SMEs by launching the Selangor SME Digitalisation Matching Grant in April 2021 during the Movement Control Order. The matching grant has played a crucial role in encouraging SMEs to take the first step in digitalising their businesses.
“From the total of 1,500 Selangor SMEs that applied for the grant, 1,100 SMEs qualified to benefit from the grant. A total of RM5 million has been channeled to cover five areas of digitalisation namely: cloud accounting, e-payment system, human resource management & payroll, digital marketing and e-commerce system
“The grant also received applications not only from urban areas, but also rural areas such as Kuala Selangor, Hulu Langat and Ijok. Based on some success stories from this programme, many have illustrated that by utilising e-commerce, e-payment systems and digital marketing, they have leveraged this matching grant to improve payment operations and transaction management,” said Amirudin.
Also present today were Selangor State Executive Councillor for Industry and Trade Dato’ Teng Chang Khim and president of CTDK Holdings Sdn Bhd Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin.
Amirudin and Teng also witnessed a memorandum of understanding being signed between CTDK Holdings Sdn Bhd and Sidec Sdn Bhd during the opening ceremony today.
Teng in his speech thanked AFFIN BANK as the main sponsor for the convention and Siti for agreeing to promote the convention.
“Not only that, I am proud to announce the MOU that will be signed between CTDK Holdings Sdn Bhd and Sidec Sdn Bhd, which I believe is a symbol of mutual understanding to help in the growth of the nation’s e-commerce industry.
Teng said the convention is the place for business owners and entrepreneurs to seek more business opportunities and perhaps obtain exclusive sponsorships.
“SDEC 2021 also acts as a platform for you to promote your branding to Selangor and national audiences. Apart from these opportunities, this convention also offers business matching and potential business leads as well as potential investment opportunities for startups.
“Previously in 2016 to 2019, the convention managed to attract 5,000 to 8,000 participants per year when the event could be held fully physically with RM77 million of business matching and sales garnered.
“However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions in 2020, the conference was organised virtually for the one-day conference with a total of 1,222 participants registered for the six panel discussions and accumulated a total view of 14,583,” said Teng.
Part of the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) 2021, the theme of the sixth Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention is Digital Transformation Towards Economic Recovery.
The event is co-organised by the Selangor Information Technology & Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) and Invest Selangor Berhad, supported by the Selangor International Business Summit.
This year’s convention is sponsored by AFFIN BANK with strategic partners from Green Packet Berhad, Tourplus Technology, VIVO, SUBPLACE, Dropee, Wilstech, Smart Rental, and PanPages Trinity.
The convention gathers industry leaders, academics, SMEs, government and private sectors, to delve into strengthening and growing the Selangor SME digitalisation ecosystem in shaping the existing and future smart city and digital economy frameworks and solutions.
Three core activities have been selected to reflect this year’s theme, namely the two-day panel discussions and Pitch@Selangor 5: Selangor Super League.
This year’s convention consists of 45 distinguished speakers speaking on various topics during the two-day panel discussions covering topics on Fintech, Agritech, Travel Tech, Digital Marketing, and SME Digitalisation.
It also features the livestream element prominently, hence the reason for having the country’s number one songbird Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza who is also a successful business owner – as the special guest of honour.
Twenty top startups from the top 3 accelerators in Selangor: Sidec, ScaleUp Malaysia and Sunway iLabs will compete for the top 3 spots to win cash prizes worth RM30,000 on Day 3: Pitch@Selangor 5: Selangor Super League which will also feature sharing sessions by Elain Lockman of Ata Plus, William Lien of Mystartr and Chan Wei Chi of pitchIN.