For the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC), a government-owned company, the mission is straightforward—to propel Sarawak’s digital economy.
Now joining this effort is Borong, a Malaysian B2B ecommerce solutions provider and platform aggregator. Touted as Southeast Asia’s fastest growing wholesale marketplace, it facilitates over 100,000 businesses’ trade and procurement locally and regionally.
Formerly known as Dropee, the startup has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SDEC along with five other companies at the International Digital Economy Conference today, October 17.
The MoU signing officiates Borong’s partnership with SDEC and their commitment to invest RM75 million to enable digitalisation across Sarawak’s MSMEs, boosting its local businesses’ growth.
The signing was completed by SDEC’s CEO, Dato Ir. Ts. Sudarnoto Osman, and Borong’s co-founder, Aizat Rahim.
Digitalising the economy
With this investment, Borong targets to transform over 60,000 MSMEs through providing digital tools and resources that bring their businesses from offline to online.
Borong will also be assessing MSMEs’ digital readiness and conduct awareness, digital training, and onboarding activities together with SDEC.
“The goal is to prepare these local businesses to utilise Borong’s ecommerce and marketplace platform to increase their global reach and competitiveness,” a press release stated.
Once onboarded to the Borong ecosystem, these MSMEs are qualified for a SME financing programme called Digital Niaga. Made in collaboration with development banks such as BSN, Bank Rakyat, and Agrobank, it’ll allow them easy access to affordable financing that could go as low as 4% per annum.
According to the press release, Borong and its banking partners to date have allocated over RM300 million in SME financing ready to be deployed and utilised.
The Digital Niaga programme is aligned with the MADANI Economy aspirations to develop local MSMEs into regional champions. By providing the necessary resources to drive their export potential, this initiative will go towards positioning Malaysia as the world’s top 30 largest economies.
Becoming a digital economy powerhouse
“These MOUs represent a critical step in Sarawak’s journey toward becoming a digital economy powerhouse,” SDEC’s Dato Ir. Ts. Sudarnoto Osman said in the press release. “These collaborations are about more than just technology—it’s about empowering the community through digitalisation.”
Incorporated in January 2018, and operationalised in July 2020, SDEC’s vision is to accelerate economic prosperity for all people through digitalisation.
With the help of Borong, hopefully SDEC will be able to better actualise its vision and establish Sarawak as a digital economy powerhouse like the CEO said.
Featured Image Credit: Borong
