Internet Businesses & Malaysia's 2014 Budget

HOORAH! THE NEW YEAR IS JUST 

AROUND THE CORNER!!!

2014 Budget (Latest or not so new news)

The 2014 National Budget of Malaysia, proves to be something of a good news to the Internet Industry. According to a report by Avanti Kumar from MIS Asia (2013) the Budget 2014 proposals tabled by the Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Friday, October 25th 2013, includes introduction of the new 6% GST that will help reduce surplus, while shrinking and balancing the fiscal deficit by 2020. Among the news was that the ICT Industry didn't miss out on initiatives too, as there was an allocation of RM3.4 billion ($1.08 billion) for the second phase of the national high-speed broadband project (HSBB), which has been so far implemented by Telekom Malaysia. - read more here -

What is High Speed Broadband?

High Speed Broad band in simplicity means fast Internet. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia implemented a High Speed Broadband Initiative, named the National Broadband Initiative in hope of making High Speed Internet available to the Citizens of Malaysia at an affordable price, with added emphasis for rural areas for the second phase.

How Small Businesses Benefit from Faster Internet?

Malaysia is the 2nd highest country in South East Asia for social media penetration. Social Media has taken to Malaysia by storm! It represents a part of the lives of the people of Malaysia, and proves to be integral in everyday tasks.

Malaysia's eCommerce revenue alone is at a staggering $30,000,000,000, approximately making up 9.88% of the country's GDP. This is just starting as the Internet space in Malaysia is expected to grow at least 20% more ($6,000,000,000) in the near future.

This proves that the Internet is a strong and growing marketplace for Malaysia. Faster broadband can deliver more productivity at lower costs, and small businesses can benefit from from reduced costs greatly. Small business can connect easily to the world, supporting innovative ideas, high-tech jobs, and grow productivity.

Clearing the air between Bandwidth vs Speed.

Bandwidth and Speed are two very different things. Just for everyone to understand lets use the highway example, where the lanes of the highway represent the bandwidth, and the speed well represents the speed. Adding more Bandwidth means adding more lanes to the highway allowing more traffic to flow, in this case more data, but the speed limit still stays fixed. So if you want faster Internet for better quality, then check speed not the Bandwidth.

Great, now what should you do?

Take advantage of the Internet by:

1. Having a legitimate different approach to after sales service through the Internet, where problems faced by your customers can be posted to an online portal for you to address to.
2. Creating a blog to engage with your customers. (Learn how to develop better titles for your Business Blog here)
3. Organize discounts and deals through an online campaign.

Optimize your results by knowing what Google is doing with their search; 'Organic' SEO.

Let us know what you think:

1. What is your perspective on the latest 2014 Budget for Malaysia?
2. Does the 2014 Budget leave any implications for Internet Businesses in Malaysia?

Image sourced from Suara Generasi Baru | data sourced from GDP - World Bank Indicator | News from MIS Asia

Posted in: 2014, budget, High Speed Broadband, HSBB, Internet, malaysia, Tips