7th ASEAN Business Awards: What a market of 625 million can expect to come their way
The 7th ASEAN Business Awards Malaysia (ABAM) 2016 held their annual gala dinner event to honour 19 winners of the ABAM 2016. The event was graced by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Abdul Razak, as well as Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed.
While the national level award recipients would be representing Malaysia at the regional-level 9th ASEAN Business Awards (ABA) in Laos in September against nine other ASEAN countries, ABAM serves to also drive Malaysian companies forward and make their mark in the Southeast Asia region. It is estimated that Southeast Asia would be the fourth largest economy in the world, come 2050, currently with a population of 625 million and combined GDP of USD2.6 trillion.
Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) Malaysia, Dr.Mohd Munir Abdul Majid said, “While there are risks to venturing out, the rewards are far greater as the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) integration gathers pace. Companies receiving their awards recognise this and have already made their ASEAN mark. There can only be more to come.”
ASEAN-BAC Malaysia chapter is a participant of the regional ASEAN-BAC, a collective endeavour for operative initiatives like business matchmakings, and also for conducting various studies on national and regional economic climates that contribute towards substantiating recommendations that are eventually incorporated into the guidelines of the overall AEC agenda.
The AEC integration
The AEC was formed in 2015, when Malaysia assumed chairmanship of ASEAN, and along with it the hosting of all ASEAN ministerial meetings and summits.
The main idea of AEC integration is to allow more seamless movement of goods, services and people across countries in the region. This is facilitated by a National Single Window in each member state, that enables electronic Customs-related transactions and duty payments, electronic document transfer between the many multitudes of members of its trading community.
According to a ‘scorecard’, 100-percent economic integration is still shy of just 6-percent and the MITI minister said, “We are not there yet, there is still a long way to go.”
He cited final hurdles as being factors like mutual recognition agreements and harmonisation of various standards.
Easing trade
Dagang Net, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dagang NeXchange Berhad, is a recipient of an ABAM 2016 award in the e-commerce category, for its work with Malaysia’s National Single Window for Trade Facilitation. The company currently operates this NSW for the Ministry of Finance, and has pioneered and spearheaded initiatives for paper-less and electronic Customs-related services, that has ultimately served to ease facilitation and streamlining of trade processes.
Executive Chairman of Dagang Net Datuk Samsul Husin, who is also Executive Deputy Chairman of Dagang NeXchange, was looking forward to the implementation of the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), a regional-level platform for all the NSWs to connect into.
The ASW aims to expedite customs procedures within ASEAN, with the creation of a single clearance channel for goods.
Dagang Net, is a member of the ASW’s technical team.
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