Fahmi seeks to curb flood of ultra-cheap goods on e-commerce platforms

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will seek a cross-ministry response to the flood of rock-bottom-priced goods on e-commerce platforms, which Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil says is hurting local traders, including many Bumiputera entrepreneurs.

Fahmi said his ministry had received complaints from shop owners about goods being sold without oversight, of poor quality and at prices that are hard to compete with.

"I oversee the telco sector, the courier sector... we see complaints from shop owners because right now, many goods being sold are of poor quality, unmonitored and even so cheap that our traders, many of them Bumiputera, are badly affected," he said.

"So I want to resolve this together with the Finance Ministry and KPDN (the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry)," he said.

Fahmi was speaking as a guest on The Tiger Show podcast, hosted by journalist Amin Iskandar.

He described collaborative, cross-ministry regulation of the e-commerce-driven digital economy as his ministry's main mission at present.

Without swift action, Fahmi said, the local market risks being swamped by products, particularly electrical and electronic goods, that fail to meet the standards of the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) and could endanger buyers.

He did not detail the specific measures under consideration or a timeline for implementation.