Selangor govt launches Selangor E-Bazar Chinese New Year Campaign

• Campaign starts 1 Feb till 7 Mar 2021, targeting 25K SME participation
• State govt to channel almost US$500K in form of discount vouchers

Following the success of the Selangor E-Bazar 11.11 Mega Sales Campaign last year, the Selangor state government has launched the Selangor E-Bazar Chinese New Year Campaign, held from 1 Feb until 7 March 2021.

For this, the state government will channel US$494,000 (RM2 million) in the form of discount vouchers to Shopee and Lazada.  The campaign targets the participation of 25,000 SMEs as well as micro businesses, including 12,500 new e-merchants expected to be on-boarded.

[RM1 = US$0.248]

The campaign is jointly organised by Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (SIDEC) Sdn Bhd and Invest Selangor. Like previous rounds of the Selangor E-Bazar campaign, the goal is to assist SMEs and micro businesses in Selangor to embrace digitalisation in order to survive in the challenging business environment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from benefiting businesses, the Selangor state government hopes that the campaign will also provide a safe environment for people to buy online with more choices of products with discounted prices.

Selangor executive councillor for Industry and Trade, Teng Chang Khim says that with the current re-imposition of the MCO, going digital has never been this urgent for businesses to ensure a continuous cash flow.

“While people must maintain social distancing to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission, let us not forget to maintain social connections with our family and friends. The Selangor E-Bazar CNY provides a safe marketplace for family and friends to discuss the latest popular festive goods and food. You may buy mandarin oranges, festive biscuits and hampers and deliver them to your parents and friends who stay in your hometown to reconnect with them,” Teng says.

“We may not be able to go back to our hometowns this year but buying gifts through the E-Bazar platform shows how our affection for our parents, family and friends will never be disrupted even by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he continues.

Teng iterates that the previous two Selangor E-Bazar campaigns created millions of direct sales, which proved that the digital economy agenda utilised by the state government is providing assistance to merchants during the pandemic.

From the two rounds of the Selangor E-Bazar campaigns in 2020, SMEs successfully generated a total of RM1.39 billion in ripple effect to the economy through direct sales worth RM43.76 million, from the RM3 million in vouchers channelled by the Selangor state government.

“I believe we still have ample room to expand our digital economy. With the acceleration of digital consumption following the Covid-19 pandemic, this trend should be continued,” Teng adds.

“Local businesses should make full use of this so that they can increase their income further. Especially under the new norm, I believe this would be possible.”