KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) today said it has decided to halt issuing new licences for courier services for two years between September 14 this year and September 15, 2022.

MCMC said this decision to impose a moratorium on new courier licences was made with the agreement of the communications and multimedia minister.

"This decision was made through licensing powers under the Postal Services Act 2012 and can be revised at any time as needed,” the MCMC said in a statement today.

During the two-year moratorium, MCMC said it will not accept applications for new licences for all categories for the provision of courier services, but will process those sent in before September 14 as well as renewals for existing licences.

"Applications received before the date the moratorium came into effect and applications for the renewal for existing licences will be processed for approval.

"As of October 2020, there are 109 courier service licence holders of various categories which are operating in Malaysia,” it added.

The MCMC explained that the decision was to allow the government, together with the postal and courier industry, to make new plans to further strengthen the sector that is facing various challenges due to changes in technology and market trends.

"This move is also in line with the official call submitted by the Association of Malaysian Express Couriers (Amec) since last August,” it said, noting that Amec is formed out of the 25 main courier companies in Malaysia including Pos Malaysia Berhad, GD Express Sdn Bhd and City-Link Express (M) Sdn Bhd.

Noting that the last study on the postal and courier industry was carried out in 2009, MCMC said that the process for drawing up a new action plan would be carried out through the National Postal and Courier Industry Lab that would be held for three weeks from November 2 to November 2020, subject to the conditional movement control order (CMCO) by the government.

The full report with the proposed action plan for the strategic development of the postal and courier industry will be uploaded to MCMC’s website for public reference, once the report is completed, MCMC said.

MCMC said the results of the planned NPCIL will be important for this industry, which it described as the core to e-commerce activities and the development of the digital economy that is facing various new challenges caused by technology advancements which had resulted in the merging of the logistic sector, e-commerce platforms, e-hailing and financial transaction services.