RM5.88b for SME development
167 programmes being implemented through 16 ministries and 60 agencies to boost industry contribution
THE government has allocated RM5.88 billion funds to run 167 development programmes for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the programmes are being implemented through 16 ministries and 60 agencies to encourage SMEs’ contribution.
“In efforts to increase SMEs’ contribution to the country, the government has set 2017 as the year to promote SMEs development and business startups.
“I was also made to understand that according to a survey, performance of SMEs for the first quarter of this year indicated that business is improving.”
Najib was speaking before chairing the 22nd National SMEs Development Council meeting at the SME Corp headquarters, here, yesterday.
He expressed confidence that the long-term goal and direction under the SME Masterplan, aimed at intensifying the growth of SMEs towards achieving the status of a high-income nation in 2020, would be realised.
From 2007 to last year, SMEs recorded average annual growth of 5.4 per cent, which was higher than the country’s overall average annual economic growth of 4.2 per cent.
“In 2016, the sector increased at 5.2 per cent while its export growth grew 6.6 per cent despite the challenging global economy.”
Najib also announced that the sixth national SME week for next year will run from June 25 to July 1.
During the meeting, the Statistics Department presented a report based on the Economic Census 2016 which concluded that SMEs outperformed the national growth in terms of output, input, value-added, employment, salaries, wages and fixed assets between year 2010 to 2015.
In a statement by SME Corp, the report revealed that SMEs accounted for 98.5 per cent (907,065) from 920,624 establishments in 2015 compared with 98.4 per cent (652,495 SMEs) in 2010, registering an annual growth of 6.8 per cent.
The meeting also discussed ways to further enhance digitalisation of SMEs, the National ECommerce Strategic Roadmap and Digital Free Trade Zone.