By Anas Abu Hassan
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — The COVID-19 pandemic to a large extent has hastened the adaptation of e-commerce and gig economy in Malaysia and elsewhere, making it a lucrative and attractive sector that Malaysians should tap on.
QI Group of Companies executive chairman Datuk Seri Vijay Eswaran said the gig economy and ASEAN developing market are two fundamental pillars for the industry players to look into in the post-pandemic situation.
“Local gig economy players should start looking at bigger market pools in the ASEAN region instead of our small local population. The ASEAN market has a lot of potential.
“We are not recognising the strengths of regionalisation as ASEAN got 600 million people in the market. Unlike in the European Union, they have actually come together economically in a strong way,” he told Bernama, here.
To further enhance the cooperation Vijay suggested that the government moves towards building more bridges and open up virtual borders for local gig economy players to venture into the collaboration.
“The government has to start making it easier and reducing the blocks by helping local entrepreneurs generate economic activity when everything can be done remotely and virtually.
“When we create more economic activity in the community, job opportunities will automatically be raised,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vijay said in order to move forward in the post-pandemic economy, local employers have to modernise at a faster rate by upskilling their workforce.
“The objective here is to allow them a pathway where they can re-tool, re-skill and upskill to prepare them for the new normal way of working or otherwise they will find themselves out of job.
“The employers also might consider their employees as their stakeholders and partners and they need to be driven by incentives,” he said.
QI Group is a diversified conglomerate with interests in education, hospitality, direct selling, financial services and retail. – BERNAMA