KUALA LUMPUR: UAE-born global e-commerce summit platform Yalla Commerce is targeting cross-border business growth between Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, leveraging the UAE-Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as a foundation for closer commercial ties.
Yalla Commerce founder and CEO Arfa Hussain said the CEPA had created a stronger foundation for the relationship between the two countries, with the platform seeking to translate the momentum into practical business opportunities.
“Our role at Yalla Commerce is to help translate the momentum into real business,” she said in her opening speech at Yalla Commerce 2026: The Global E-Commerce Summit here today.
Arfa said the company’s aim was ultimately to help businesses move from identifying opportunities to executing their expansion plans.
“When more businesses are able to take those next steps successfully, the impact begins to extend beyond the individual company. Products enter new markets, capital flows, supply chains grow, opportunities grow, technology moves, and jobs are created,” she added.
Arfa said the platform was born from her experience as an e-commerce entrepreneur, where taking a brand into a new market could involve challenges such as finding the right partners, understanding the market and reaching new customers.
“Every market works differently. Where do you begin? Who are the right people? What will it cost, and how do you reach customers who have never heard of your brand? These are all the challenges Yalla Commerce was created to solve,” said added.
The platform seeks to bring organisations with market expertise, infrastructure and capabilities together with businesses looking to expand into new markets.
“That connection between knowledge, access, and execution lies at the heart of Yalla Commerce,” Arfa noted.
She said successful cross-border expansion could generate wider economic benefits beyond individual businesses, including new markets for products, stronger supply chains, greater capital flows, technology transfers and job creation.
E-commerce was increasingly becoming an important part of how countries trade and grow together, rather than simply being a channel for businesses to sell products, she said.
“It is not only changing how businesses sell; it is becoming an important part of how nations trade and grow together,” she remarked.
Arfa said Yalla Commerce’s wider ambition was to build practical corridors between high-growth economies, with the first corridor connecting the UAE and Malaysia.
“Our ambition is to build practical corridors between high-growth economies. And the first of those corridors begins here between the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia,” she emphasised.
Arfa said the UAE’s position as an internationally connected commercial centre between the East and West complemented Malaysia’s mature e-commerce ecosystem and its position at the heart of Asean.
“Malaysia, on the other hand, brings an equally important dimension to this corridor. It has developed a mature e-commerce ecosystem, supported by government commitment to digitalisation, strong businesses, marketplaces, ecosystem providers, and talent.”
The UAE-Malaysia CEPA was signed in January 2025 and entered into force in October 2025. It is Malaysia’s first bilateral trade agreement with a Gulf Cooperation Council member and is aimed at strengthening trade and investment ties between the two countries.
Arfa said the agreement provided an additional foundation for businesses from both markets to explore opportunities across borders.
Yalla Commerce 2026, being held in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and today, brings together e-commerce businesses, technology providers, marketplaces, logistics companies and other ecosystem players to discuss cross-border expansion.
The event is supported by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Mastrade), Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Dubai CommerCity.
