Courier industry woes: Fahmi Fadzil to meet players next week

KUALA LUMPUR - Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil will meet courier industry players next Wednesday to comprehensively discuss the challenges facing the sector.

He said that he hoped the meeting will result in improvement steps in creating healthy competition among the industry players.

"The courier sector does face several challenges and most of the challenges mentioned are related to operating costs, and perhaps what some of them might see as uncompetitive behaviour.

"But we through MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commision) are looking into it and insya-Allah (God willing), there will be some steps, efforts to help the industry create more liveable playfields,” he told the media after officiating Pos Malaysia's Sustainability Road Map here today.

He said this in commenting on developments concerning the implementation of the National Courier Accelerator Plan (PAKEJ) introduced by the government in June 2021.

PAKEJ is a five-year action plan aimed at improving the quality of courier services (QoS) and smooth coverage to support the growth of the e-commerce industry to 30 packages per capita by 2025.

On another development, Fahmi said it is possible for Malaysia to see newer technologies such as drones be deployed, to pick up or deliver a parcel in the near future.

"I believe different players are looking into it whether it can be done or not yet largely due to the physical constraints.

"This is because if we are picking up or delivering parcels using this method (drone), there are certain limitations but I can see that as the drone logistics sector is growing, and we have some of the biggest drone companies in the world based in Malaysia, I believe we may perhaps move towards that," he said.

Earlier in his speech, Fahmi emphasised that there is a rising need and pressure for postal companies to strike a balance between profit and mitigating environmental impact, as concerns over climate change and environmental degradation increase.

He also said such changes also required postal companies to adopt more sustainable and environmentally-responsible practices, in line with Malaysia's commitment to being a key part of the global transition to a low-carbon and eventually carbon-neutral society by 2050. - BERNAMA