Digitalisation enables shoe designer’s dreams to come through

Started as a flea market shoe seller, Christina Ng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Christy Ng Sdn. Bhd. (Christy Ng) made her debut on the international scene by adopting a digital transformation strategy and shifting to an e-commerce platform.

Christina’s business endeavours started with a humble beginning. Due to financial constraints, her entrepreneurial journey began at the tender age of nine, when she started selling strawflowers made by her mother, at the Kelana Jaya LRT station. At the age of 15, she sold ice-cream to help her family earn more money.

Today Christina is one of the most sought-after shoe designers in the country. As a self-taught entrepreneur and designer, she began to sell her unique shoe designs on Facebook as a way to make some side income and pursue a childhood dream. From a brick-and-mortar business, her operations grew bigger and today Christy Ng is a multi-channel woman footwear & handbags company. With retail stores in key locations across Klang Valley, the brand also hails an e-commerce site that ships worldwide to customers from over 70 different countries across the world.

However, just like many other SMEs, Christina’s business was impacted by the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. She applied and was awarded the #SMART Automation Grant (SAG) matching grant, an initiative under the Government's recent Pelan Jana Semula Ekonomi Negara (PENJANA) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-tier companies in the services sector to automate their business processes and ease their financial strains as a result of the pandemic.

The grant which was made through the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) empowered traditional and non-technology activity-related businesses to embrace new technology and move towards digitalisation.

Serving local and international customer base, Christina’s online business operation had to become agile and versatile very quickly for her to be able to cater to the needs and demands of her customers. She said that the Government’s PENJANA funding announcement for businesses came at the right time when the world was badly hit by the pandemic. It helped support businesses like hers to innovate and automate swiftly enabling them to participate in the digital economy while responding to the societal changes.

“The support was necessary. Before moving to a new platform, we were managing our online and offline orders on separate systems that were not integrated at all,” said Christina.

“Most of our daily routine was spent on managing the orders and it was time-consuming since everything was done manually. Through the SAG initiative, we managed to migrate to a more consolidated system that helps us to reduce our work hours by improving the efficiency of our order management and processing system, while providing a better shopping experience for our customers,” she added.

Just like Christy Ng, 65 other SMEs and mid-tier companies have been awarded the SAG matching grant by the Government through MDEC. With the impact of the pandemic and MCO restrictions in businesses, the grant was structured to ease the burden of these businesses whilst offering them interest-free financial assistance so that they are building their digital capabilities and capacities.

“SMEs are the backbone of our economy. The Malaysian economy consists of almost 99% of SMEs, contributing to 38.9% of the country's GDP. I’m happy to note that Christy Ng and other SMEs as well as mid-tier businesses have benefited from this matching grant, enabling them to contribute to Malaysia’s economy. We look forward to continuously supporting Malaysian companies on their business endeavours, ensuring that they are provided with the right resources, platforms and financial assistance needed to aid their business automation and expansion,” said MDEC CEO, Surina Shukri.

Adding on to this, Datuk Wira Dr Hj. Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, Chairman of MDEC shares the agency’s vision to lead the digital economy forward for Malaysian businesses. “At MDEC, our

initiatives are focused on enabling businesses with their digital adoption whilst building their digital capabilities and capacities. This is a central part of MDEC’s three strategic framework pillars: Digital Jobs and Skills, Digital Businesses and Digital Investments. To achieve its vision of enabling a people-first society, the agency continues to set the foundation for Malaysians to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), further supporting the nation’s efforts to realise the Malaysia 5.0 vision, leading to shared prosperity for all.”

MDEC foresees that the services sector will continue to contribute to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) as the country move towards achieving its digital-first vision. MDEC has taken the necessary steps to support SMEs to move towards digitalisation and to stay competitive in the market. For more information about MDEC SAG and upcoming grants, please visit mdec.my/sag or contact MDEC’s Client Contact Centre (CliC) at 1-800-88-8338/ [email protected].

About Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)

Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is a government agency under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia entrusted to lead Malaysia's digital economy forward.

Incorporated in 1996 to oversee the development of the MSC Malaysia initiative, MDEC's primary mandate today is to accelerate the growth of digitally-skilled Malaysians, digitally-powered businesses and digital investments in Malaysia. MDEC is focused on creating inclusive, high-quality growth through the nationwide digitalisation initiatives that are in line with the Government’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 and firmly establishing Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN.

#LetsBuildTogether #DigitalMalaysiaForward

To find out more about MDEC’s Digital Economy initiatives, please visit us at www.mdec.my or follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyMDEC/ Twitter: @mymdec