The Selangor government today launched E-Bazaar Raya Selangor to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro traders as their income has been affected by the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the initiative, undertaken in collaboration with Shopee, will enable entrepreneurs to market their products online to generate income this festive season.

He said this would also make it easier for the public to obtain items such as traditional delicacies, home furnishing and clothing at affordable prices for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations.

"Shopee is a popular platform in the country and also operates in seven Southeast Asian countries. Shopee Malaysia currently has 800,000 active sellers.

"The Shopee Malaysia application has been downloaded over 20 million times and the website is visited by 29 million customers monthly. The state government is collaborating with an efficient and responsible private company to assist SME entrepreneurs," he said in a statement here today.

To boost the businesses, Amirudin said the state government will allocate RM1 million in the form of discount vouchers while Shopee will offer marketing support, training and matching resources along with other packages.

He said E-Bazaar Raya Selangor would begin next month, involving 2,000 online traders. It is targeting to assist 3,000 conventional entrepreneurs to participate in the e-commerce platform.

All the entrepreneurs are from the state government entrepreneur programmes such as HIJRAH, SITEC Online and Agro Selangor.

"Those traders who did not participate in any state government entrepreneurs programmes are also eligible to join the E-Bazaar Raya Selangor initiative for free. Those interested can apply at http://tiny.cc/selangorebazar," he added.

According to Amirudin, Shopee will also provide a special microsite to promote entrepreneurs' products at the E-Bazaar Raya Selangor platform through live streaming, shocking sales, vouchers and free delivery for purchase above RM19.

-- BERNAMA