98% of businesses in Sabah are SMEs
KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Raymond Tan Shu Kiah has urged the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the state to keep on fighting to reach greater heights, despite facing implications of the global economic slowdown.
“When times are tough, it is the tough who get going. I want to highlight that here in Malaysia and most of the other countries in the world are now going for free trade.
“But there are countries who are doing the reverse, by looking at how they can do business on their own, to protect their own economy.
“I strongly believe that, as we grow, we would need to explore other markets, beyond our boundaries. We must believe that the world is our market,” Raymond said at the Sabah Industry Excellence Award (SIEA) ceremony 2016/2017 on Friday.
Raymond, who is also Industrial Development Minister, revealed that over 98 per cent of the businesses in Sabah were comprised of SMEs and that the number of SMEs in the state represents 6.3 per cent of the total 645,136 SMEs in the entire country.
In line with this, Raymond encouraged all the SMEs of Sabah to export their products internationally.
Commenting on the impact of technology on the functioning of SMEs, Raymoned contended that it will take the entrepreneur some time to fully grasp and utilize the importance of technology on the growth of a business.
“The bottom line is that we (the government) want to make sure that SMEs are doing well and successful. Let me be blunt, we want you (the SMEs) to make more money,” Raymond added.
He stressed that when the government gives an SME assistance, the government would be expecting a positive growth from that particular SME.
“If we give you 10 per cent assistance, we would be expecting a 30 per cent growth,” Raymond said in giving an example.
The event, which was held at The Pacific Sutera Harbour saw five awards being given out, namely, Local Companies with Annual Sales Less Than RM5 million, Local Company with Annual Sales Less Than RM10 Million, Local Company With Sales Between RM10 million to RM25 million, Local Company With Sales Above RM25 million to RM100 million as well as the Most Promising Company Award.
The awards were presented to Kebun Rimau Sdn Bhd, Indahmanis Label Sticker & Packaging Sdn Bhd, Sabah International Dairies Sdn Bhd, Tomher International Sdn Bhd and Creamos (M) Sdn Bhd.