Dagang Net upbeat on revenue

Published by NSTP (Business Times)

DAGANG Net Technologies Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Time Engineering Bhd and the information technology unit of the UEM group, expects to register RM58 million revenue from its core business, up from RM50 million in 2005.

Dagang Net chief executive officer Saifol Bahri Mohd Shamlan said the revenue growth will be contributed by e-commerce and el ectronic data interchange (EDI).

"In 2004, revenue from our core business was RM46 million. Currently, our core business contributes over 90 per cent to our total revenue," he told a news conference after the opening of a United Nations (UN) workshop on international standards for paperless trade in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Saifol Bahri said Dagang Net's e-Permit and soon-to-be- launched e-Manifest and electronic K3 form are instrumental to the company's revenue.

E-Permit is for importers and exporters who require permits from general permit issuers, while e-manifest is a document that describe goods to be loaded or unloaded at the port of call. K3 is a form used for the transfer of goods between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak .

He said the electronic K3 is currently under a pilot project and is expected to be operational in April, while the pilot project for e-Manifest will start on March 1.

Saifol Bahri said Dagang Net has started a National Single Window through the company's web-based e-Permit to facilitate trade electronically.

The National Single Window is a one-stop facility that links government agencies including the Royal Malaysian Customs, importers, exporters and forwarding agents to facilitate more efficient imports and exports of goods.

"We are targetting all permit issuing agencies in the country to come on e-Permit by the fourth quarter of this year," he said.

Out of the total 24 permit issuing agencies, two - the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority and the Pesticide Board - have come onboard e-Permit, one - the Department of Environment - is undergoing pilot study and another 11 agencies are doing requirement study on e-Permit.

On the UN electronic Trade Documents (UNeDocs) implementation in Malaysia , Saifol Bahri said it will be ready for the domestic market by 2007. For cross-border implementation, Dagang Net is currently doing a UNeDocs pilot project with service providers in Germany and the UK .

UN/CEFACT has developed UneDocs as a global standard for digital trade documents and data exchange, which can be tailored to user requirements, yet remains internationally-aligned.

"We anticipate higher intra-regional trade resulting in gains for our Malaysian businesses, consumers and the economy (from alignment to UNeDocs)," he said.

He said UNeDocs also enables local small and medium enterprises to participate in international trade at lower costs and in secure environments because shipments will be processed and delivered faster, while trade administration costs decrease.