KUALA LUMPUR, 5 October 2022 – The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre), Malaysia’s premier purpose-built venue, is proud to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SG Akademi (M) Sdn Bhd (SG Academy) to enhance the talent development of team members and students, as well as help address the workforce shortage in the hospitality and business events sectors.
The partnership also aims to benefit students at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges by providing them professional exposure in an internationally recognised organisation. TVET students predominately come from B40 (Bottom 40%) communities, so it is hoped that this exposure will broaden their horizons and open up more opportunities for them.
The MOU will see the Centre and SG Academy collaborate in the areas of capacity building and talent development; permanent, part-time and temporary job opportunities for TVET students and graduates; and upskilling and reskilling of employees in the Malaysian hospitality and business events industries.
Speaking during the MoU Signing Ceremony, the Centre’s Director of Human Resources, Muhammad Vickneswaran, shared, “We are excited to be unveiling this new partnership, which builds on the success of some of our previous talent development and capacity building initiatives. The hospitality and business events sectors are facing a huge workforce shortage as Malaysia welcomes international events and tourists back to our shores. In the aftermath of COVID-19, we are dealing with a reduced supply chain, decreasing workforce and stiff competition locally and regionally. As such, this collaboration couldn’t be timelier for us as we look to attract fresh talent and grow our local talent pool.”
He continued, “Since opening, we have made great strides in responding to the Malaysian Government’s call to nurture and develop the local talent pool. Being the People’s Centre, we are also extremely committed to being an inclusive venue that gives back to the community in which we operate. Ultimately, we want to ensure that we do not leave anybody behind as we continue to develop our products and services to cater to the highest international standards. This MOU is hopefully the first of many more to come and I look forward to seeing this partnership flourish to truly benefit our team members and TVET students moving forward.”
The Centre has always put an emphasis on training and talent to benefit the Centre, the local hospitality industry and Malaysia as a whole. It is this commitment to developing and nurturing talent who can not only make a significant contribution to the Centre’s continuing growth and success, but the local industry as well, with many going on to utilise these skills in other parts of the Malaysian hospitality and business events industry.
Elaborating on the partnership with the Centre, Chief Executive Officer, SG Akademi, Dato’ Sri Ganes Palaniapan, said “We’re happy to be partnering with the Centre to help TVET graduates, many of whom come from the B40 community, to get on-the-job experience, enable employee upskilling and develop workplace learning opportunities. We view this partnership as a long-term collaboration and we are looking forward to working with the Centre, who have always been a leading example in employee engagement and student talent development initiatives. We’re very proud to be partnering with an organisation which puts their people first.”
The MOU with SG Academy joins a number of other programmes designed by the Centre to nurture and develop local talent namely, the Ambassador Programme, which addressed the flexible staff shortage faced by the industry and even prompted a paradigm shift in talent management in Malaysia’s hospitality industry. Other programmes initiated to-date include the Professional Development Programme (PDP), the Student Employment Programme (STEP), and Experiential Learning Programme (ELP).
Earlier in the year, the Centre also announced a RM2,500 minimum wage for its full-time team members, 40% more than the Government mandate, which came into effect on 1 May 2022. The Centre is currently actively recruiting part-timers to join its Ambassador Programme that provides a complimentary Basic Food Handler course, refresher training allowance, SOCSO and EPF contributions, flexible working schedule, uniform, duty meal, and night shift transport allowance.
The U.S. Embassy’s Marine Corp, would like to invite AMCHAM members to the 247th Marine Corps Ball, on 12 November 2022.
Tickets are RM 360 and will be on sale from June 1 thru October 21, 2022 in the MSG Detachment office located inside the RSO office and Post One.
Please purchase tickets early for desired seating.
For more information contact Lance Corporal Valencia @ Ext 4959 or [email protected]
Law firm Azmi & Associates released their latest article on the National Security and Investment Act 2021 in practice. In this article, they go into detail on how the UK’s National Security and Investment Act 2021 has worked since its coming into force on 4 January 2022.
On 5 October, AMCHAM’s Human Capital Committee organized the second briefing on Amendments to the Employment Act. This is timely as the Ministry of Human Resources recently announced the implementation of amended Employment Act would be moved to January 2023.
Anwar Yusoff, General Manager, HR & Government Affairs, ConocoPhillips, and Chair of Human Capital Committee welcomed the participants at the beginning of the session. We are glad to have with us here again the Employment Law experts Raymond Low, Partner at Shearn Delamore & Co; and Hon Cheong Yong, Partner at Zaid Ibrahim & Co. to go through the various updates with regards to the Act and how employers and employees can better prepare for its implementation. Mei Quin Chen, Senior Employment Counsel at Intel Technology Sdn. Bhd. moderated the session.
Attendees were able to raise questions and concerns surrounding the updates before the amendments are implemented next year. Thank you to our guest speakers for conducting the session and helping us through the complications of the updates.
Kuala Lumpur, September 30, 2022 – The latest e-commerce trends from research commissioned by FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and one of the world’s largest express transportation companies, shows that both Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) and consumers in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region (AMEA) agree that there’s room for further growth in the already booming e-commerce sector. In Malaysia, nearly 90% of SMEs acknowledge the increased importance of e-commerce to their business over the past 3 years while 89% of SMEs believe it will continue to become even more important in future.
The What’s Next in E-Commerce: 6 Trends Shaping the Future survey polled SMEs and consumers in 11 markets in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region (AMEA) in July 2022 to explore the continuing evolution of e-commerce in the region and identify the trends that could fuel their future growth.
The survey reveals that consumers in AMEA are looking for innovations in personalization, shoppertainment and payment options that enhance their experience and at the same time, make it easier to discover new brands and make purchasing convenient. And with plenty of shopping festivals already in the calendar, consumers are looking for even more seasonal offers. Taken together, the research shows there is plenty of fertile ground for e-tailers to experiment with new approaches that can help build their customer base.
“COVID has accelerated our lifestyles to a pivot point where shopping online has been normalized across all demographics, and there’s no going back. With that, e-commerce is set to take a growing proportion of total consumer spend[1].” said Kawal Preet, president of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) at FedEx Express. “With more people shopping online consumer preferences are becoming increasingly sophisticated. As SMEs and e-merchants evolve their online sales platforms, our research uncovers opportunities for businesses to capitalize on what consumers want. Customer experience is the driving force behind how e-tailers engage with their customers and how we are innovating our shipping solutions. With an expanded portfolio specially developed for e-commerce businesses, FedEx is well positioned to support the changing expectations of consumers and the continuation of e-commerce growth.”
E-commerce sector matures but further growth ahead
Asia Pacific which includes the world’s biggest e-commerce markets like India, Mainland China, Japan and Korea[2], will see revenue from e-commerce sales to reach US$2.09 trillion this year as 57% of the region’s population shops online.[3]
Both SMEs and consumers are maturing in their use of e-commerce and both groups agree that the pandemic-driven utilization of e-commerce is here to stay. Eight in ten SMEs in AMEA believe e-commerce will become more important in their business in the next three years and nine in ten believe they are well prepared for the challenge. 80% of consumers reported that e-commerce had taken a greater share of their total purchases over the past three years while 71% see further increases ahead.
Of the 11 markets in the Asia Pacific, SMEs in India, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam were among the most optimistic about their future e-commerce growth in the next three years, a sentiment shared by consumers in these same markets. Looking ahead, for Malaysian SMEs, China is seen as the key market, within AMEA, that Malaysian SMEs will target for export growth, followed by India and Japan.
While the latest e-commerce trends from this research shows that both SMEs and consumers in AMEA agree that there’s room for further growth in the already booming e-commerce sector, there are still challenges ahead. Many e-tailers are struggling to cope with the increasing demand and cannot recruit fast enough. This has a knock-on impact on service levels. E-tailers believe they are providing a higher level of service than consumers perceive.
Expectation mismatch on service experience touchpoints
As more consumers participate in the on-demand economy and increasing shipment volumes put pressure on e-tailers, maintaining customer service quality is critical. In Malaysia, the survey data reveals that the biggest pain point in service gaps is that deliveries are taking too long, which is cited by 71% of consumers within the study, as the majority (79%) of online orders typically take 3 days. The second pain point cited by consumers in Malaysia is having to return products (42%), following by the difficulty in finding products online (33%) as the third pain point.
The service experience mismatch varies widely across the 11 Asia Pacific markets ranging, with Malaysia seeing the widest gap, followed by the Philippines and Singapore.
Too few experienced people for too many jobs
While the future looks bright, 65% of e-tailers in AMEA reported they were struggling to handle the growing number of orders they were receiving. Amid surging demand talent and recruitment has proven challenging for SMEs. A further 73% had experienced extremely high levels of resignations over the past 12 months as the global Great Resignation phenomenon has impacted the AMEA region. 62% believed there were too few people for too many jobs with e-commerce marketing and sales experience being most in demand. SMEs are adopting a dual approach in response, recruiting talent from outside their business and upskilling current staff through training to meet demand in a tight employment market.
Logistics providers are here to support
“E-commerce is gaining more importance in people’s life, as consumer needs continue to evolve. We are well positioned to support businesses take advantage of future growth of e-commerce in Malaysia, with a dual focus on meeting the needs of e-tailers and their end-consumers. For e-tailers we provide simple, streamlined solutions which make order fulfillment easier. While for the end-consumer the priority is to provide speedy, reliable, trackable delivery, that enhances overall service experience,” said SC Chong, Managing Director Operations, FedEx Express Malaysia.
FedEx is integrating its services with e-commerce marketplaces so e-tailers can generate FedEx shipping labels and use additional FedEx features, such as Express Shipping Services and International Shipping Documentation Service, without leaving the platforms. Easy to use, friction free services like these make it easy to onboard new staff and help improve the work experience. In addition, FedEx® International Connect Plus (FICP), launched last year was recently expanded to benefit e-tailers across fourteen markets in AMEA. This value-for-money international shipping solution delivers most shipments between 1 to 3 business days within the AMEA region, which meets consumer expectations for speed of delivery according to our survey. And, delivery customization solutions like FedEx® Delivery Manager allows e-tailers to offer their customers the personalized service, and freedom to manage and control their shipping preferences, which today’s consumer demands.
About What’s Next in E-Commerce Survey
The online survey was conducted by Harris Interactive in July 2022 across 11 markets including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 300 small and medium businesses (with less than 250 employees) engaged in e-commerce were polled in each market alongside 500 consumers (1,000 in India) over the age of 18. To access the full report click here.
[1] https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/global-ecommerce-growth-forecast-2022
[2] https://www.business.com/articles/10-of-the-largest-ecommerce-markets-in-the-world-b/
On 30 September, AMCHAM hosted representatives from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Trade based in Washington D.C. for a briefing on their e-Allegations and Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) programs. These programs allow the public to submit allegations of commercial trade violations and anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) evasion to CBP for investigation.
John Leonard, the Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner at U.S. CBP opened with an introduction to the new programs and how they came about. Brian Hoxie, Director – Enforcement Operations Division Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate, Office of Trade at U.S. CBP along with the Branch Chiefs – Kristina Horgan, Victoria Cho and Marisa Hill provide detailed information on how the two programs work, the complaint submission process, and the investigation process.
Attendees had the opportunity to raise questions and learn more about the said two programs under U.S. CBP. Special thanks to the U.S. CBP team for conducting this insightful session.
