KUALA LUMPUR — In facing these challenging times during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to check the spread of COVID-19 outbreak, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said delivery services and online marketing could be new ventures for those with jobs at stake.
“During this time especially many of the people lost their job, among the things you can do is (related to) the transportation industry, especially delivery. If you have a car maybe you can provide a delivery service to your area, so you can create a new job.
“Delivery system is in hand because personal delivery is needed. One job shrink and another will take place,” the former prime minister said in a special interview ‘MyPerintis: A Morning Tea with Tun Mahathir’ broadcasted live through social media.
The programme was run by MyPerintis (Yayasan Perintis Malaysia), a non-governmental organisation founded last year to promote youth activation and purposeful lifestyle.
He added that there is a demand to enhance the delivery system because many products needed to be delivered, hence, delivery service is the key at this moment.
“Delivery system now is necessary because if you cannot deliver, you cannot sell the product. A good delivery system is the key. Without leaving the house, without going to the shop, you still can increase productivity as you can order anything and pay with a credit card and the thing will be delivered to you. This happens when there is a good delivery system,” he said.
He also stressed that the cargo industry also must think about how to make full use of this as the issue has grown more than before.
“Before this, not many were using it (cargo/delivery system) but now we can even buy or sell bulky things. Like China exporting health products to another country. So, we need to take advantage of the delivery system as you can market the product to a bigger market, not confined to only our country but the bigger international market,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir also said there was an increase of people who are using online marketing such as Shoppe and Lazada but unfortunately, not many people were aware of how to make use of online marketing to increase their income.
He said, the people need to learn how to do online marketing and how to improve their productivity through digitalisation and other new technologies but these require some teaching.
“We have a lot of young people in Malaysia who are very good in business and they must tell people… step by step how to digitalise their market or product. But now we can teach them through the internet. We don’t have to meet the people because on the internet you can see everything that needs to be done.
“For example, if you want to learn about the engine, you can show exactly how this is done repeatedly via the internet. From that, you are able to learn a new skill, do a thing that you have not done before and earn money through from it via the internet and online marketing,” he said.
— BERNAMA
