by NURUL SUHAIDI – MALAYSIA RESERVE
SMALL and medium enterprise (SMEs) and business owners are encouraged to look out for the right financing access and grant to grow and accelerate
SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) CEO Rizal Nainy (picture) said this is particularly important as SMEs must adopt the digital economy and digitisation to close the gap, enhance their business operations and procedures
He noted that the government and banks have a substantial allocation for micro-enterprises in boosting their capital resources as the group translates about 97.4% of all businesses in Malaysia and is considered as a backbone of the economy.
“The government through its agencies and banks have come up with various programmes, grants and guarantee funds to support the SME digitalisation and automation aspect, green economy, and halal industry,” he said during a panel session at the “Unlocking Opportunities: Exploring Funding Options & Grants for SME Growth” symposium on Thursday.
Additional funding options include to support the venture in High Growth High Value (HGHV) industries, such as electrical and electronic technologies used in aerospace or space exploration.
“These are industries that we would like young entrepreneurs and tech startups to look into and to expand their business so that they can have a quantum leap and contribute to the economy,” he added.
Rizal said in terms of digitalisation, 80% of MSMEs are computerised, in which they own gadgets to complement their business operations.
“However, when it comes to back-end digitalisation, which is the system itself, it is still at 50%, which means that there is a gap for MSMEs to upgrade their business processes,” he noted.
The session was organised as part of the 8th Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention (SDEC) organised in conjunction with the seventh edition of the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) by the Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (SIDEC) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
