10,000 Malaysian SMEs Listed On Alibaba Platform, Says Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 (Bernama) -- Some 10,000 Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are listed on international marketing technology platform Alibaba, said International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed. Mustapa said the listing of the SMEs, under the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation's (MATRADE) e-commerce scheme, could help them penetrate overseas markets. "This is an instance of economic cooperation between Malaysia and China, and is expected to benefit SMEs in the country," he said at the Ministers' Question Time session at the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) here Thursday. He was replying to Nawawi Ahmad (BN-Langkawi), who wanted to know the investment, trade and employment benefits to Malaysia from the recent trade mission to China that reportedly brought investments worth US$33.84 billion (RM144 billion) into the country. To a supplementary question from Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Bharu) on Malaysia's stand and the status of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) after Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential election, Mustapa expressed hope the US would not make drastic changes to the trade pact. "We read his (Trump's) previous statement on this as rather harsh, but we see that he has changed his views on several issues. "We hope this will also happen with the TTPA. We believe the US as a trading nation will not change its policies much. There will definitely be policy changes, but they will not be so radical," he said. The TPPA will also be included in the agenda for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting to be held in Peru soon, he added. -- BERNAMA