Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) co-organised the Gig Business Talkfest on 28th October 2021, involving platform industries in Malaysia. The programme focused on three sectors in the sharing economy, i.e. logistics and delivery, personal helper, and on-demand workforce, which are among the biggest local gig sectors.
Founders and top management from sixteen local ‘platfirms’ attended the event representing Akla, Dego, DropIt, Fasttrexs, GetRunner, Halo, Hyred, Matdespatch, OdaMakan, PosRider, SELDEC, TheLorry, Troopers, ZeptoExpress, GoLog, and DD Express.
The Director of Sharing Economy Development Department from MDEC, Mr. Mohd Redzuan Affandi Abdul Rahim, and Dean of AHIBS, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rosmini Omar, gave their welcoming remarks. The programme is part of MDEC’s initiative, under the 12th Malaysian Plan, to increase the competitiveness of local platform players comparable to global standards while considering local needs and scenarios.
The Talkfest adopted focus group discussion using the Design Thinking and open discussion approaches. The participants provided inputs regarding the feasibility of platform assessments, performance attributes, mechanism, challenges, and supports required to assist platform growth from business and technological perspectives.
The programme is one of the activities under a four-month consultancy project led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rossilah Jamil to develop a proof-of-concept for the first platform assessment programme in Malaysia. The other project members consist of multi-disciplinary researchers from economics, accounting, management, entrepreneurship, and information systems, i.e. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rohaida Basiruddin (AHIBS UTM), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nomahaza Mahadi (AHIBS UTM), Ts. Dr. Puteri Nor Ellyza Nohuddin (Institute of IR4.0, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)), Dr. Hanif Baharin (Institute of IR4.0, UKM), and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zukarnain Zakaria (International Medical University).
The team won the project bidding against other public and private competitors. The team also awarded a separate research grant to specifically explore gig labour issues and rights to propose a human resource framework suitable for the platform industry.
