Sarawak Handicraft Goes Global Via E-Commerce
Bernama, Malaysia
KUCHING, July 25 (Bernama) — Sarawak wants to encourage handicraft industry players to venture into electronic commerce transactions with branded value-added products to have a competitive edge in the international market.
State Assistant Rural Development Minister Datuk Gramong Juna said today local producers would not only be able to market their craft worldwide but also helped to make the Sarawak handicraft industry to be more competitive in the borderless world of e-commerce via a one-stop e-handicraft mall.
“Competition between local products and those from neighbouring countries will remain part and parcel of the whole enterprise system but we can encourage promote local craft through k-economy and e-commerce initiatives,” he told reporters after launching the Sarawak Craft Council (SCC)’s Sarawak Best Handicraft Website at the Sarawak Tourism Complex here.
Gramong, who is also SCC chairman, said industry players could broaden their product base by coming up with innovative and new designs to showcase at the website, http://www.right.sarawak.gov.my/Rightmart, which currently offer a small collection of best branded products, including indigenous beads, pua kumbu and songket textiles, rattan baskets and wood-carving objects.
He said industry players were also encouraged to promote local craft, whereby shops selling at least 80 percent of Sarawak handicraft would be entitled to have the SCC logo displayed at their business premises.
The Sarawak government, through SCC, was supportive of the needs of local producers, including organising several promotions, both local and abroad regularly, he added.
Although the industry’s annual sales volume was not available, Gramong said the SCC reaped about RM35,000 from its two-day handicraft exhibition held here from March 30.
He said Sarawak’s rich cultural heritage would also be showcased through locally produced craft at the Handicraft and Arts Festival to be held here in conjunction with the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines-East Asean Growth Area) Travel Exchange from Nov 1 to 4, 2007.
– BERNAMA