KOTA KINABALU, Feb 20 — The Sabah Small Industry Digital Entrepreneurs Association (Perdiks) hopes the government can provide more courses, training, and guidance in e-commerce marketing to encourage the involvement of more micro entrepreneurs in the digital business.

Its chairman Azlee Okee said this effort would enable the micro entrepreneurs in Sabah to be prepared with knowledge and skills to expand their business through digital marketing in order to realise the objectives outlined in the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL).

"Perdiks hopes the Federal government can provide assistance in terms of digital education or funding that can help entrepreneurs in Sabah compete with the others in the digital space.

"This include providing funding to help them develop basic e-commerce platform, business website to facilitate data keeping and product information as well as provide product exposure to buyers.

"Hence, courses and guidance classes must be given continuously so that they are prepared and have exposure to digital business,” he told Bernama here, today.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin launched MyDIGITAL initiative in a bid to expedite the nation’s transformation to become an advanced economy in the technology sector by 2030.

Through MyDIGITAL, the government will also encourage some 875,000 micro, small and medium enterprises to use e-commerce.

Azlee said a complete preparation must be taken in Sabah to support the initiative including upgrading the Internet infrastructure network which also covers the rural areas.

This is because many micro and small and medium entrepreneurs in Sabah especially in the rural areas are left behind due to lack of exposure and knowledge in digital business, he said.

On Perdiks, Azlee said its entrepreneurs are 70 per cent-ready to adapt the digital business with basic e-commerce knowledge.

The association had made the early start to encourage its entrepreneurs to market their products through e-commerce platform, Shopee, besides using social media platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp during the movement control order enforced last year.

"More than 200 Perdiks members have sold their products online. Besides that, Shopee Perdiks has been created since August last year with over 150 entrepreneurs taking part,” he added. — Bernama