Rural SMEs face funding, knowledge, manpower issues in digitalisation

KUALA LUMPUR: Funding, digitalisation knowledge, manpower shortage and insufficient product variety are among the challenges faced by Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in embracing digitalisation, says the SME Association of Malaysia.

National President Datuk Michael Kang Hua Keong said to address these challenges, the government should conduct basic e-commerce talks, provide good and affordable infrastructure including for companies in rural areas and conduct seminars on how to leverage on the new media for digital marketing, which has lower costs.

“The government can also assist SMEs in providing lower cost in ecommerce on-boarding and digital advertising and promotion to promote the branding of SMEs especially for Made-in-Malaysia products. This will enable local SMEs to better promote their brands and products,” he told Bernama.

In terms of infrastructure needed to support digitalisation such as Internet connectivity, Tan said while the existing infrastructure was sufficient in major cities or urban areas, it was still lacking in rural areas.

“High availability of Internet connection and e-commerce adoption with social media digital marketing will help SMEs in rural area adopt e-commerce, social media and digital marketing,” he said.

Meanwhile, SME Corporation Malaysia said digitalisation has changed the way of doing business for rural SMEs, especially in the areas of global market access, improved business transactions, time saving, minimise business cost, marketing and networking. — Bernama