The parent company of Shopee, e-commerce giant Sea, is based in Singapore. It has promised to invest more in Malaysia and create more than 2,000 jobs in the process.

Shopee is the biggest e-commerce site in Southeast Asia and Taiwan as a whole.

Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry, told the company’s headquarters in Singapore on Sunday that this was going to happen (January 29).

He also said that Sea’s decision to invest more in Malaysia shows how confident the company is in the country’s business prospects and how stable its operations and policies are.

During the minister’s visit, Sea told him about its plans to grow in Malaysia. These plans include cloud computing services, hosting and processing of data, and a new logistics e-commerce warehouse.

“We also expect good things to happen for our small and medium-sized businesses, big companies, and the communities around them.”

– Tengku Zafrul Aziz

Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry said that the cloud computing project will be in a three-story green building in the town of Kulai in the state of Johor (MITI).

It will have 24 data hall suites, mechanical and electrical rooms, office space, storage, and parking. It should be done by the first quarter of 2024.

Shopee will also grow in Malaysia with a new two-story mega warehouse in Bukit Raja, Klang. This warehouse is an integrated high-tech logistics park with cloud infrastructure that covers 130,000 square metres.

“Their planned foreign direct investment in cloud computing and high-tech warehouses is expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs for our people. This will also help us improve our human capital and increase our national productivity and competitiveness in the long run.

“We also expect good things to happen for our small and medium-sized businesses, big companies, and the communities around them.” This includes buying from local businesses, helping vendors grow, and making the local industrial ecosystem stronger, especially in the digital space,” said Tengku Zafrul.

Tengku Zafrul is in Singapore for three days on an investment mission. This is happening at the same time as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s first official trip to the country, which starts on Monday.

During the trip, he will also have one-on-one business meetings with the Yondr Group, a global leader in data centres, and INSEACT, a Singapore-based alternative protein company that specialises in making sustainable insect protein for aquaculture.

“Challenging 2022“

Gang Ye, who helped start Sea and is now the group’s chief operating officer, said that the decision was important not only for the group but also for the local digital ecosystem.

He said, “We’re grateful that the MITI minister and his team have helped us with our business plans and plans to grow.”

Bloomberg said that Sea’s founder, Forrest Li, said in an internal memo that the company “needs to focus on profitability after a difficult 2022.” He also said that the economy in 2023 “may prove to be even more challenging” because of the ongoing war in Ukraine and rising inflation rates.

So, Li said, the company will stop giving raises to employees who haven’t been promoted. He also said that most of the other changes have already been made.

As of December of last year, Sea had let go of more than 7,000 workers, which is about 10% of its workforce.

In September 2022, Garena also laid off people and shut down some big projects to help Sea make more money.

In the same month, more Shopee workers were let go, and some of them lost their jobs just days before they were to start.

Info source – CNA