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PETALING JAYA: The manufacturing and services sectors remained the key drivers of growth in the country’s e-commerce income, which jumped 17.1% on-year to RM279bil in the third quarter of this year, the Statistics Department said yesterday.
In terms of quarter-on-quarter growth, e-commerce income maintained a positive trend with 4.3% growth, according to the Malaysia Digital Economy 2021 findings.
From January to September, e-commerce income rose 23.1% on-year to RM801.2bil. At the state level, e-commerce was driven by the industrial states, namely Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.
“In view of industry, the manufacturing and services sectors remained the key drivers of growth. Indeed, the improved performance was attributed to the adoption of the new normal during the Covid-19 pandemic, which boosted digital usage in Malaysia,” it said.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the report also presented statistics on e-commerce and ICT’s contribution to the economy, access and usage of ICT, and the performance of the ICT services sector.
In another finding, he said since the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia in late January 2020, the government enacted the movement control order (MCO) to slow the transmission of the virus.
During the MCO in 2020, only 38.1% of establishments were operational, compared to 92.4% in the recovery MCO or RMCO.
“In terms of overall income, 79.6% of establishments reported a decrease during the MCO, compared with 46.9% in the RMCO. For e-commerce income, 19.1% of establishments experienced an increase during the MCO, and 26.1% in the RMCO,” he said.
Meanwhile, the department’s Information and Communication Technology Satellite Account (ICTSA) 2020 saw ICT recording RM320bil in 2020, up 10.4% from 2019 (7.3%).
It contributed 22.6% to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP), which comprises of the gross value-added of the ICT industry and e-commerce of other industries.
Mohd Uzir also said e-commerce gross value-added increased by 26.5% to RM163.3bil, up from RM129.2bil the previous year.
“For the first time since the ICTSA compilation, e-commerce recorded a double-digit contribution of 11.5% to the GDP in 2020,” he said.
Meanwhile, based on the e-commerce income by market segment in 2019, the income of the local market generated from sales conducted in Malaysia dominated the market with a contribution of 87.6%, as compared to the international market’s 12.4%.
The value of the income generated was RM591.8bil and RM83.5bil, respectively.
Accordingly, e-commerce income by type of customer via business-to-business or B2B registered the highest income of RM449.6bil with a 66.6% contribution, followed by business-to-consumer or B2C at RM194bil (28.7%).
In the meantime, business-to-government or B2G recorded RM31.8bil (4.7%).
ICT services, which comprise of the activity of publishing; motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing; programming and broadcasting; telecommunications services; computer programming, consultancy and related activities and information services recorded gross output RM163.8bil in 2019, an increase of 5.7% when compared to 2018.
“The value of intermediate input and value-added also increased, 5% and 6.4%, respectively, to record RM78.2bil and RM85.6bi for the year 2019.”
He added that in 2019, 86.2% of establishments used computers, while 85.2% used the Internet.
Putrajaya had the highest percentage of computer and Internet use, with both recorded at 99.9%.
In 2020, the percentage of individuals using computers was 80%, and the Internet was 89.6%. Putrajaya also registered the highest percentage of individual computer and Internet usage, with 99.9% and 99.7%, respectively.
Most of those who have implemented technologies in their businesses use mobile Internet and technology, as well as social media, websites and cloud computing.