Industry Revolution 4.0 in Malaysia
A lot of people nowadays are talking about IR 4.0, it’s an industrial revolution that utilises computer networks and edge computing. To simply say, the daily used device become smart and connected to give better insight for us and make a better decision. For example, a smartwatch that can read our heart rate and movement. It can help us to take care of our health better by knowing when to get active or get focused on office work. Let’s take a look at the agriculture industry, a farmer can use a connected sensor to automate an irrigation system and control farm ambience.
Since industry revolution 4.0 become the talk of the town, there are a lot of people who gain interest to develop and prototype a smart device. Prototyping smart devices become easier lately by using development electronic boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, ESP32 etc. These devices becoming popular because the prototype can be produced in a short time. The programming language to program the prototype device also become friendlier to the people who didn’t have deep knowledge in low-level code such as binary code or assembly code. Even primary school student also can make their own smart device.
Importing the electronics to Malaysia
All of these devices are manufactured outside of Malaysia. To bring it in, you have to follow certain procedures to ensure it will not be detained by government agencies. Simply say that to import any electronic devices, you need to deal with SIRIM/MCMC or ST/SIRIM. 2 types of devices need to be dealt with SIRIM.
- Electronic devices that can communicate with other devices, be it wired or wireless (except IR and DVB-T2).
- Electric devices that do not communicate with other devices. In other words, the devices that dumb and not connected. For example, light bulb, fan, switch, fridge, iron etc.
SIRIM is an appointed agency by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as the Certifying Agency (CA) for Communication and Multimedia products under the Communications and Multimedia Acts (CMA) 1998, Communications and Multimedia (Technical Standards) Regulations 2000. They are responsible to process and issuing import permits to all communications and multimedia products as according to Customs Act 1967, Customs (Prohibition of Imports) Order 2012. This approval would take about 3-4 weeks of the working day including Type Approval.
Suruhanjaya Tenaga (ST) is the regulator for the electricity and gas supply industry. Through ePermit, the client can apply to ST for the issuance of a Certificate of Approval (COA) to manufacture, import, display, sell or advertise electrical equipment and for a Release Letter from Customs Detention. It would take about 14 working days to get this approved.
Individuals who are purchasing the electronic device from overseas will get a notification from the courier company to settle it by themselves at the SIRIM before proceeding with local delivery to their home. This electronic device needs to be declared to be exclusively used by individuals or companies in a certain limited time and quantity. This arrangement is called special approval due to its limitation of usage.
Other than special approval, SIRIM also has other types of approval such as IT networking Permit and E-permit. IT networking Permit is a SIRIM permit that involved IT networking items such as switch, router, load balancer, firewall etc. E-permit is a SIRIM permit that involved wireless communication such as cellular, short-range communication (SRC), short-range device (SRD), mobile land radio, microwave etc. Usually, this approval is suitable for a business that wants to sell this device locally. Before getting E-permit, you need to go through Type Approval. Type Approval is granted to a controlled product that meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements. This approval is required before a product is allowed to be sold in a particular country. You can get Type Approval from SIRIM QAS INTERNATIONAL SDN BHD.
Delivering to your place
Once you get the approved permit (AP) from SIRIM, you can proceed to arrange the delivery to the destination. There are 11 kinds of import shipping arrangement which is called International Commercial Terms also known as Incoterm. Most courier companies are using these 2 incoterms. The first is Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) and the second is Delivery at Place (DAP). These 2 shipping arrangements differ only in the cost to be incurred for each stage of delivery either by the seller or the buyer. I will tell more about the shipping arrangement in the next post.
If you have difficulty managing your import matters for your ordered goods from overseas, we can help you to manage it. We want to make this process transparent to you as much as possible so that you can focus on your business. Please click here to contact us.