Fusionex powers up Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) platform

Data technology provider Fusionex is leading a consortium to provide the e-services platform, powered by big data technologies, for the world’s first Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) – an initiative between the Malaysian government and e-commerce titan Alibaba.

The DFTZ e-services platform is a trade facilitation programme that is integrated with other business service and government service platforms, to facilitate a paperless and accurate data capture, data storage, data exchange and data analytics process, to support the high growth in internet trade activities.

The DFTZ will facilitate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and merchants to capitalise on the internet community as well as the e-marketplace via a huge borderless addressable market. At the same time, these cost benefits and efficiencies are expected trickle down to consumers who would stand to enjoy faster, efficient and more cost-effective products and fulfilment, according to Fusionex.

Ivan Teh, Fusionex Group CEO, said: “The DFTZ is a first of its kind digital hub that brings together a multitude of key parties including trade facilitation players, e-marketplace players, government agencies, logistics providers, freight forwarders, and of course, SMEs. The state-of-the-art e-services platform is powered by, amongst others, big data technologies and machine learning that will facilitate trade and allow transactions to take place faster, more cost effectively, more reliably and more efficiently."

He added the initiative by the Malaysian government and Alibaba will pave the way to a seamless digital trade platform that will help remove unnecessary barriers, reduce costs and minimise or avoid unnecessary delays and encumbrances.

The DFTZ is also expected to generate a huge amount of online transactions of orders, trade movements and payments coming in and going out of the country and region.

During his keynote speech at the DFTZ launch, Alibaba group chairman and founder Jack Ma said: “DFTZ and eWTP (Electronic World Trade Platform) would help small businesses and individual e-commerce players benefit from global trade. Today we are witnessing that in Asia, small businesses can use digital ways to enable themselves to sell things, to buy things, to bridge moneys all across the world.”