20/08/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | AUG 20, 2025

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Ninja Van Malaysia widens cross-border reach o Network reaches 46

Rising cocoa prices spark strong return potential, says board KUCHING: World cocoa prices are currently on the rise, thus making the crop a commodity with high potential to generate lucrative returns. The Malaysian Cocoa Board (LKM) in a statement yesterday said that in 2024, the average price of dry cocoa beans grew by 141% to RM24,274 per tonne compared to RM10,073 per tonne in the previous year. “The Cocoa Cultivation Promotion Programme for the Plantation Sector will be implemented by the board from 2025 to 2030 with an allocation of RM550,000 per year. “Via this programme, LKM will distribute high-quality cocoa seedlings for free, provide technical guidance, practical training and continuous monitoring to ensure that cocoa planting is carried out according to the best agricultural practices,” the board said. So far, it said, several Malaysian plantation companies have participated in the programme, with a total area of 360 hectares. Companies selected to participate in the programme would receive incentives in the form of 5,000 high-quality cocoa seedlings worth RM50,000, in addition to technical advisory services including nursery development, planting systems and others, it said. “Within five years, the programme aims to expand the cocoa plantation area by 2,750 hectares nationwide. “The plantation sector is an important driver in increasing cocoa production sustainably to meet the demand of local manufacturers, while supporting efforts to make Malaysia a producer of premium cocoa and ‘single origin’ cocoa beans, which are increasingly gaining traction in the world market,” said LKM. – Bernama KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s automotive sector total industry volume (TIV) jumped 28% in July, compared to 54,863 units in June, according to the Malaysian Auto motive Association (MAA). In a statement, it said that the higher TIV was attributed to a full working month of 23 working days, compared to June (19 working days), and low production base in June due to the Hari Raya Aidiladha shut down. However, MAA reported that the year to-date (YTD) TIV was 5% lower than the corresponding period in 2024. “On a year-on-year basis, the TIV for July 2025 was 5% lower than the 73,501 units recorded a year earlier, with 64,438 passenger vehicles and 5,619 commercial vehicles sold. “For production, a total of 71,439 units were produced in July 2025, up by 1.0% from a year earlier comprising 67,075 passenger vehicles and 4,364 commercial vehicles,” it said. On the industry’s outlook, MAA ex pected the sales momentum in July to continue in August. The association said the performance in August would be driven by higher stock availability supported by July’s high production volume of 71,439 units, aggressive promotion in conjunction with the Merdeka month celebration, and sales impact from new model launches. – Bernama Automotive TIV in July up 28% from June: MAA

From left: Lin, Miti senior director See Chee Kong, Matrade senior manager Syed Zahirulddin Syed Ali and Hong at the launch.

destinations worldwide with addition of 44 international delivery lanes

Ű BY DEEEPALAKSHMI MANICKAM sunbiz@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: Ninja Van Malaysia has launched 44 new international delivery lanes, extending its cross-border reach to 46 destinations worldwide in a move aimed at helping Malaysian businesses scale into global markets at significantly lower costs. The new routes span Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe, adding to existing services to Singapore and the Philippines. With delivery times ranging from seven to 12 days and shipping rates starting at RM70, the service is more than 50% cheaper than conventional cross-border options, making it one of the most affordable logistics solutions available to local brands. “This launch makes the world no longer out of reach for Malaysian brands,” CEO Lin Zheng said during the event. “With 46 international lanes, we are offering a practical and cost-effective way for local businesses to enter new markets, build a global customer base and grow with confidence. Our goal is to remove the friction from cross-border logistics so that businesses can focus on what they do best, creating, innovating and scaling.” For Lin, the launch marks the beginning of a bigger vision: “Today is just one step but an important one, towards making Malaysia not just a logistics hub, but a launchpad for regional and international success.” Ninja Van cross-border regional vice president Jeremy Hong said: “Our goal is simple, to eliminate the friction from cross PETALING JAYA: Despite all the hype about OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-5 model, some Malaysian business leaders say companies should instead “go local” for artificial intelligence (AI). Doing so can create jobs, protect Malaysian consumer data, make artificial intelligence more Malaysian and boost companies’ bottom line, according to insights released yesterday by Juwai IQI. Juwai IQI Group CEO Kashif Ansari explained, “You fall behind if you don’t use artificial intelligence, but costs can grow quickly. By ‘going local,’ as I call it, a typical large Malaysian company can save up to RM1.7 million per year, depending on usage rates. You also get the benefits of data privacy and security, customisation and automation. “‘Going local’ is my way of saying two things. First, we are using open-source AI models that are offered by their creators for ‘free’ to the larger community. These models are usually not quite as capable as the latest commercially available models on the market but are free of ongoing external usage costs. Second, we are hosting these models on our own servers. That means we never send our data to the big AI companies’ servers.”

Regionally, Ninja Van delivers over two million parcels daily and has enabled more than 270,000 merchants to ship across borders. Founded in 2015, Ninja Van Malaysia is part of a wider Southeast Asian network backed by marquee investors including GeoPost, Alibaba Group and B Capital Group. Beyond e-commerce, Ninja Van is laying the groundwork to venture into new logistics verticals, including business-to-business inventory restocking and cold chain solutions, reflecting its ambition to move beyond being just a parcel delivery company. Industry observers note that competitive shipping options are especially critical for SMEs, which often lack the economies of scale of larger corporates. By reducing costs and streamlining processes, Ninja Van’s new international lanes may provide the boost smaller brands need to compete in overseas markets. maintenance for a powerful server,” he added. He explained, “Here’s how I arrived at those cost estimates. For a customer service chatbot processing one billion tokens annually, the cost using a paid mini-model would be approximately RM76,000 (US$18,000). PDF document summarisation is actually a very demanding task for AI, and handling some 500,000 documents per month could cost around RM1.65 million (US$390,000) per year. Lastly, the marketing content generation could reasonably cost about RM10,500 (US$2,500). When you add these costs up, you get RM1.7 million (US$410,000).” Mungaye said, “Going open source and local also allows us to make the artificial intelligence we use more Malaysian. We can fine-tune or train the model we use to under stand local slang and cultural nuances in Malay, Mandarin, English, and other lan guages. “We can also teach it industry-specific terminology, so it is more accurate and relevant for the ways that we use it. In sum, by ‘going local,’ Malaysian companies like us can get the benefits of AI at a lower expense while also protecting their costumers’ data and giving them a better service,” he added.

border logistics so businesses can scale without limits.” While Malaysia has seen strong entrepreneurial momentum in recent years, high shipping costs, complex customs processes and limited infrastructure remain key challenges for SMEs seeking to export. Ninja Van’s expanded network aims to close this gap by offering SMEs a cost effective, integrated solution to ship globally. The company’s advanced logistics platform allows sellers to manage both domestic and international deliveries through a single dashboard, without needing new accounts or system integrations. Orders can be processed within minutes, using the same workflow as local deliveries. Domestically, the company operates a 260,000 square foot hub in Shah Alam, supported by more than 160 hubs, 5,000 pick up and drop-off points and a fleet of 7,000 vehicles. He said most of what a typical business in Malaysia does can be accomplished with these open source AI models. “Yes, we still use GPT-5, amongst others, but only for a fraction of our AI needs. We found that we can do most of what we need here in Malaysia by going local,” he added. Juwai IQI Group COO and CIO, Nabeel Mungaye, said: “When you use artificial intelligence models from providers like OpenAI or Alphabet, you pay for usage: the more you use, the more you pay. But when you use open-source models hosted on your own servers, there are no ongoing usage fees. This is critical if you have high-volume AI applications, like customer service chatbots or PDF summarisation tools.” “I’ve run some back-of-the-envelope numbers. A typical large Malaysian company that has embraced the use of AI for things like customer support, PDF summarisation, and marketing could end up paying over RM1.7 million (US$410,000) per year in usage fees from a service like OpenAI. On the other hand, running an open-source model on a local server for those same needs could cost as little as RM63,000 (US$15,000) per year. You would essentially just pay the cost of electricity and

Forget ChatGPT-5, Malaysian companies say better to ‘go local’ in using AI: Juwai IQI