Net Gains By Dagang Net

Published by New Straits Times (Logistics)

DAGANG Net Technologies believes that the logistic industry must work together to provide a total supply and value-chain solution. MALCOLM ROSARIO writes. MALAYSIA 'S logistic industry needs to be integrated for it to be a dominant force in a globalised business environment.

"There is a lot that needs to be done to boost the efficiency of the national logistic industry, but the integration of logistic services tops the list of things to do," said Dagang Net Technologies Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Saifol Shamlan.

He said Malaysia needed a strong national backbone to facilitate this economic growth, and therefore, there needed to be an integration of all service providers and industry players of the transport and logistic sector. Dagang Net believes that there is a dire need for better co-ordination among industry players to improve efficiency and offer better services.

This view was mirrored by shipping analysts who said the Malaysian logistic industry was a national resource. They said the industry and its vast network linked Malaysia together and to the world, facilitating commerce and playing a vital role in virtually every business sector, and thus better co-ordination would help the industry to grow. They said that going forward, the bulk of the country's throughput would come from heightened demand from exporters and importers to containerise their goods.

Container trade on a global basis accounts for 62 per cent of the total freight weight tonne moved. Over the past 20 years, containerised cargo has expanded by an average of 9.8 per cent a year. Despite this growth, like in all other industry sectors, there are challenges and issues being faced by the logistic sector.

Each party plays a role that can affect the competitiveness of the country's economy and as such all these parties need to adopt a unified and integrated approach in overcoming them. Realising the need for an integrated logistic sector, the Government has appointed Dagang Net Technologies to act as a central component of the entire Malaysian trade value chain.

A value chain is being developed where the participants will be frontline-service providers such as freight forwarders and logistic providers as well as ancillary service providers such as banks, insurance companies, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers (ISPs) and the government authorities.

"We need to recognise that this value chain exists and that all organisations are linked within this relationship. As such, we must work together to strengthen and streamline the value-chain in which all industry players can come together to improve quality, increase speed to market and lower costs, which is the formula to make Malaysia a leading trading hub," Saifol said.

To boost the growth of the sector, Malaysian logistic providers need to embrace or adopt innovative IT initiatives to improve their competitiveness. That way, the industry can respond to the opportunities presented by the "new economy" in moving people and goods faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

The industry must also overcome the challenges of an aging IT infrastructure and learn to embrace new e-business initiatives. Furthermore, the industry must collaborate with the Government to develop solutions and to make investments in infrastructure and information technology.

"We feel that the logistic industry can also be boosted by establishing a national e-logistic system to strengthen this total supply chain," he said.

One way to do this was to take advantage of the Dagang Net System at all ports, as the national gateway for the transmission of trade documents to ease the facilitation and streamlining of international trading processes for imports/exports, he said.

"To strengthen the logistic chain, we think a one-stop portal for all e-trade activities can put the industry in the forefront of international trade. Dagang Net's suite of web- based online services called MyPorts, eDeclare, DutyNet, eInsurance, ePermit and CBex, all collectively form a trade facilitation portal that will evolve into a single window for performing trade facilitation.

"We have plans to expand our services upstream in the trade value chain as well as horizontally into general business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce," he said, adding that the Dagang Net Exchange was expected to be a national trade and logistic e-commerce service.