Businesses to receive help to move to digital platform
SANDAKAN: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Member of Parliament for Sandakan, Vivian Wong said that the current global Covid-19 crisis has hastened the adoption of digital means in our everyday lives.
Be it shopping, dining, working, meeting or even schooling, the use of digital technology is becoming commonplace and the trend will only accelerate further in the near future.
Therefore, she urges all businesses in Sandakan to actively embrace digitalization in order to survive this crisis, and then to prosper in the new market environment.
“Things will never be the same again. Ever since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was imposed on March 18, we all experienced huge changes to our daily routine and our usual ways of doing things. I believe all these changes will stay with us even if a vaccine is found for the Covid-19. We will continue to live with this new routine and our community will continue to operate with the new SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). In short, the new normal is going to stay with all of us for a long time,” she said.
To this regard, Vivian announced that the P186 Sandakan Rakyat Service Centre’s team will be actively helping all businesses in Sandakan, especially those small and micro business owners to latch on to the digital transformation to help turn their business around.
“For example, dining in at our market and coffee shops now is not as easy as before Covid19 with social distancing and contact tracing mechanism strictly enforced in order to comply with the SOP.
As a result, it drives away many customers who previously would not think twice to bring the whole family to eat out.
Hence, such eateries may need to consider signing up with delivery service apps to re-capture the customers. In addition, many people now prefer using e-wallet to conduct their transactions to avoid queueing at the banks or simply to avoid handling cash notes. So businesses, including hawkers or stall holders in markets, should consider using e-wallet for their business too. So our team will be assisting vendors if they need help to move their businesses to the digital platform.
“Many may think that Sandakan is too small or too backward for such a move.
“But the truth is many business owners here are already embracing these changes. I was pleasantly surprised when I could actually use my e-wallet to pay for a packet of economy noodles at a hawker stall on the first floor of Central Market recently!
“Changes are forced upon us due to the pandemic and adapt we must or else we will be eliminated by the changing circumstances and trends.
:Should any vendors or micro business owners need help on a digital platform, they can contact the P186 Sandakan team at 089218713 or simply send a message via Facebook Messenger to enquire,” she said.