The MoU, inked on the sidelines of an eight-day trade and investment mission organised by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), was between MOL Accessportal, Municipal Web Portal Soultions, Inc., a Canadian-based e-solution technology company and Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd (MDV), the Malaysian innovative technology project financier.
The trade and investment mission, covering the cities of Toronto, New York and St. Louis was led by Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz.
Speaking to Bernama after the signing ceremony, Ganesh said his company's e-Government solutions, developed from ground up based on Microsoft's platform and equipped with e-services concept, had attracted several Canadian local governments.
"Yes, Canada is advanced but because their e-solutions were developed a long time ago, those solutions were out of date. Now they are looking for replacement," he said.
Given the high Internet penetration in the North American market, MOL Accessportal sees it as a big market and expects to secure contracts worth between two and five million Canadian dollars over the next one year, he said.
MOL Accessportal's e-Government solution is currently used by the municipality of Pasir Gudang, Johor with contract valued at RM2.5 million.
Ganesh said his company was talking with a few municipalities in Malaysia and in other parts of the world to further expand its market.
While the market for its e-Government solutions look promising and gives MOL Accessportal a higher margin, Ganesh said his company's true crown jewel is its first project called MOL Cybercafe, a free worldwide management system that runs a programme called MOL e-points where users can pay cash at cybercafes for their on-line transactions.
"Basically it solves the requirement for credit cards and we are selling today like pre-paid air time. And now we are talking about selling bus and airline tickets," he said.
Ganesh also said that MOL Accessportal planned to use e-points to turn cybercafes from just an avenue for internet access to more of e-commerce hubs.
"Our e-points' overall revenue has been growing at a rate of 70-100 percent a month. The top outlets among the 200 MOL Cybercafes that currently implement e-points in Malaysia are doing between RM6,000 to RM10,000 per month," he disclosed.
On expansion, he said: "We are already talking with parties overseas.
We have been getting queries on e-points asking to bring it to countries like the Philippines, Nigeria and India.
"We even got a cybercafe in United Kingdom wanting to distribute our products and wanting to be a partner in Europe."
MOL Accessportal had for the financial year ended June 20, 2002 enjoyed RM5.3 million in revenue. The company expects its revenue increases in coming years to be in double digit.
Meanwhile MDV managing director/chief executive officer Jiro Suzuki said his company, which offers Asia's first-ever project debt financing did not exclude the possibility of financing MOL Accessportal's expansion in its MOL Cybercafe business.
"It is a really good model to duplicate in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. We are going on this too," said Jiro, who was a member of MITI's trade and investment delegation which ended Tuesday.
For the MOU, Ganesh and Jiro signed on behalf of their companies while Municipal Web Portal Solutions was represented by its director Jimmy De Manis.
Quelle: Bernama
