KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) will start operations in early October, six months after the launch the Alibaba iCloud e-commerce platform.

For a start, 1,500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with suitable products, will be chosen by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to participate in an online cross-border trade

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced this to Malaysian journalists here upon arrival from Hangzhou, where he met Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma and was briefed on the operations of Alibaba, the largest e-commerce giant in China

With the start of the operations, DFTZ will be first digital free zone of its kind outside China that is set to boost the growth of cross-border e-commerce by creating access to the hub of the city of Hangzhou in order to make inroads into China's market.

The Prime Minister said a regional eFulfillment hub would be set up in Malaysia in October, with Alibaba housing the Alibaba iCloud platform for a big data platform for Southeast Asia.

Najib said he had invited Jack Ma, who is also the Malaysian government’s digital economy adviser, to participate in the launch of the hub in October.

The Prime Minister said Jack Ma was amazed with the speed and commitment of the Malaysian government in making the decision to set up the DFTZ a reality.

The DFTZ was launched three months after the initiative was first discussed and another six months for it to begin operations in October.

“He (Jack Ma) is so positive about Malaysia because he kept on repeating that he’d got my agreement within 10 minutes to agree on the DFTZ.

“And I’d committed as well to make it a reality within three months and we did that,”‘ Najib said, adding that Jack Ma had also described the Malaysian government as a “super-efficient government. — Bernama

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