GHL System Berhad Annual Report 2020

A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 0 25 SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT CONT’D DESIGN AND MARKETING OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES 2020 proved to be a challenging year for the Group as a whole. The immediate impact of the region-wide lockdown resulted in reduced consumer spending and transactions since many business premises were forced to close. However, the lockdown saw a substantial shift towards digitalisation and electronic payments. Applying one of the Core Values, ‘ Addicted to Innovation ’, the Group identified opportunities that successfully positioned itself as an advocate of cashless and business sustainability – by developing eGHL SWIFT. eGHL SWIFT is a one-stop e-commerce solution that facilitates businesses to swiftly migrate onto the digital space in a span of three (3) days. This digital tool is a complete business migration suite that includes customisable webstore pages accompanied by a payment gateway feature, e-commerce marketing solution, and other essential analytics. The Small Medium Entrepreneurs (SME) segment was significantly affected by the impact of COVID-19. The Group remained dedicated to form numerous integrated efforts to support the sustainability of this segment by offering its strongest value proposition - to provide financial services that catered to all, especially to the financially underserved. The Group introduced two (2) separate services - INSTANT by GHL and GROW by GHL . The main objective of developing both services was to assist in improving the livelihood of said MSME segment. INSTANT by GHL is the fastest electronic payment acceptance that can be applied by all businesses - MSMEs or individuals, shortening the registration time to two (2) hours. The online payment acceptance comprises card payments as well as local and cross border e-wallets, namely MasterCard, Visa, NETS, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost, GrabPay, MAE by Maybank, MCash, RazerPay, MBSB e-wallet, Alipay, UnionPay QR, and WeChatPay, amongst others. This service also allows merchants to benefit from additional income by offering mobile reloads and bill payment services. Selected as one of the key drivers of the ‘ Cashless Pasar Awam ’ campaign, the Group was mandated to drive the e-payments initiative in Penang by on-boarding approximately 70% of the 5,000 merchants, spread across 56 public markets in the state by end of 2020. GROW by GHL is a business segment curated to catalyse sustainable livelihood of the Micro Small Medium Entrepreneurs (MSMEs). This service encompasses an extensive range of financial and non-financial services such as insurance, lending and wealth management, a service that aims to successfully maximise merchants’ competitiveness and profitability. The Group also received mandate from the Minister of Housing and Local Government to pioneer the digital ‘ Credit Community ’ initiative. The launch was in line with the Ministry’s vision to make financing more accessible to the financially underserved MSMEs. The Group was among the eight (8) selected pioneers, out of 4,572 license holders. CUSTOMER EMPOWERMENT EVENTS While the urban population was ready to ride on the Fintech wave, the Group viewed that the bigger challenge lies in improving the financial literacy among suburban and rural crowds. The Group embraced this challenge by playing an important role in sharing their knowledge and expertise. Below were some of the occasions where the Group was granted the opportunity to share insights through numerous programmes in collaboration with Malaysian Digital Economic Corporation (MDEC): 1. July 2020 – The GAIN Connex webinar aimed at sharing valuable insights with over 30 Malaysian tech companies in order to understand the current business landscape, and at the same time source for business opportunities in Indonesia. GAIN Connex is an annual flagship that takes place in Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh, supported by MDEC under its Global Acceleration and Innovation Network (GAIN) programme initiative.