Growth Malaysia to help 100,000 restaurants grow digitally by 2020

• To help offline retailers go digital in payments, marketing, data, and financial services
• Partners have started to expand and offer more value add to restaurants owners

MINISTER of Entrepreneur Development Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof and Fave founder Joel Neoh on Feb 26 launched Growth Malaysia, an initiative by Fave in collaboration with partners, Grab Malaysia, Maybank, MDEC, Funding Societies and Productivity Nexus for Retail & F&B.

Also in attendance was Ahmad Fahmi Mohamed Fadzil, MP Lembah Pantai, who participated in a fireside chat.

Supported by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development, Growth Malaysia is a collaboration between key industry players with the mission to help offline retailers in Malaysia go digital in terms of payments, marketing, data, and financial services.

At its debut, the collaboration aims to help 100,000 restaurants across Malaysia grow digitally by 2020.

In his speech, Mohd Redzuan cited the World Bank, that only 62% of businesses are connected to the Internet, 46% has fixed broadband (often of low quality) and 18% have a web presence of some kind.

“This is why we are excited about Growth Malaysia, as it is in line with the Ministry's mission to widen and coordinate entrepreneurial activities to be more targeted, inclusive, encompassing all segments of society.

“I am extremely glad to see giant private entities such as Fave, Grab and Maybank working together with government agencies for the betterment of the nation’s economy and to help improve the industry as a whole. With that, I strongly urge offline retailers to seize this opportunity to further expand their businesses.”.

“Malaysia has seen consumers going exponentially digital today, with everything happening on their mobile phones from texting, watching movies, shopping and paying the bills. As the world evolves to going digital, offline businesses, especially those in F&B and retail need to catch up and adapt to the growing shift of the behavior in consumers, else they risk being left behind.

“While larger companies are already making the digital shift fast with lots of investments, small-medium businesses and entrepreneurs need help today. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all partners that are coming on board Growth Malaysia, and I look forward to working together to achieve the goal to digitise 100,000 restaurants by 2020,” said Neoh.

As a nation enriched with culture and traditions, many businesses need proper awareness and encouragement to grow from the traditional ways towards digitisation.

During the fireside chat, Fahmi and Neoh talked about bridging and balancing between traditional and modern businesses, values and mindset.

The Growth Malaysia collaboration partners; including Fave and Grab have started to expand and offer more value add to restaurants owners; including cashless and mobile payments; digitising loyalty cards, coupons, and gift cards; food delivery and ordering; providing data and insights, and enabling easier access to financial services.

The launch also saw a panel discussion by partners of Growth Malaysia titled David and Goliath: Empowering SME Restaurants to stay competitive in the digital age, where panelists shared industry trends, the how’s and why’s on the importance of going digital.

For more information about Growth Malaysia, and how retailers can participate and benefit from the collaboration, please visit www.growthmalaysia.com