Malaysia Told to Promote Sharing Economy

Malaysia can offer an abundance of room for the sharing economy to grow in view of the presence of companies such as Grab, Airbnb and Foodpanda, and this sector will become an increasingly essential piece of the overall economic pie in the current digital era.

World Economic Forum independent advisor April Rinne said the emergence of the modern sharing economy would create a new revenue source by utilizing the nation’s underutilized assets coupled with today’s technology, Bernama reported.

She said the effective use of underutilized assets owned by individuals, ideally those with high cost and low-frequency of use, such as vehicles, power tools, rooms and even baby clothes, could generate extra income by sharing those in need but also, if implemented correctly, build communities from its social value through decentralized networks via online or mobile application platforms.

 “An average person uses a power drill for around 16 minutes of their life, and leaving it idle seems to be such a waste, in terms of usage and money. “Instead, if you treat it as a shared asset, such as a tool library, not only can the tool be used more efficiently, but it also save costs and can even earn extra income,” she told Bernama.

Rinne said Malaysia had done fairly well in terms of growing a sharing economy but there is room for improvement. She suggested that visionary leadership would be required to define what would be a sharing economy for Malaysia and work towards that definition.