SME Corp hopes for adequate allocation
KUALA LUMPUR: SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) hopes the 2019 Budget will set aside an adequate allocation for smalland medium-enterprises development programmes under different ministries and government agencies.
Its acting chief executive officer, Rizal Nainy, said more than 15 ministries and 60 agencies were implementing SME development programmes.
“SME Corphas its long-term strategy as well. Among them is to create more innovative and productive firms so that they can contribute more to the economy, especially to the gross domestic product growth.”
Rizal said this on the sidelines of the SME CEO Forum 2018.
According to Rizal, SME Corp, which has been placed under the Entrepreneur Development Ministry, had earlier outlined a strategic plan to help the bottom 40 per cent household income group (B40), youth and women entrepreneurs.
He said SME Corp noticed that the number of women entrepreneurs was on the rise.
“About 20.6 per cent of SMEs, or equivalent to more than 187,000 businesses, are owned by women.
“Meaning that they hold more than a 51 per cent stake in a company, or they are the CEO or managing director, holding about 10 per cent equity in a company,” he said.
On the assistance programme for the B40 group, he said it was more about helping them with access to financing.
“Hopefully, with micro-financing, especially when financial technology kicks in, they could be more aware about this and get help from that and not rely just on the conventional banking institutions.”
He said access to financing was one of the six focus areas under the SME Masterplan (20122020), which was also in line with the focus outlined in the recent mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan.
“Access to financing has always been one of the challenges for SMEs.
“Nevertheless, proper programmes designed by the government, such as introducing capacity, capability building and training programmes, can help SMEs grow further.”