BNM holds dialogue session with SMEs, Terengganu govt agencies

KUALA TERENGGANU: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) held a dialogue session with local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), state government agencies and financial institutions on Thursday in conjunction with its Financial Carnival here.

The dialogue session was chaired by assistant governor Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid and attended by 11 business chambers and SME associations.

BNM, in a statement yesterday, said the central bank was committed to ensuring that the SME financing ecosystem caters to the needs of SMEs, especially financing, advisory and redress channels.

It also emphasised that the SMEs would continue to have access to financing from 40 financial institutions including 16 Islamic financial institutions.

Through the dialogue session, the business community provided insights into the developments affecting the east coast region and discussed the challenges that they faced in doing business.

“Generally, SMEs felt that access to financing is not the main constraint in doing business. However, access to training and capacity building avenues and the need to increase knowledge on financial products were the concerns highlighted by the business community,” said BNM.

SMEs facing financial difficulties are advised to seek assistance at the early stage, and can avail themselves to advisory platforms such as the dedicated SME Counter which have been set up at all six BNMLINK centres nationwide.

The six BNMLINK centres are available in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

BNM said the discussion and engagement session had also received positive feedback from the business community and the government agencies in Terengganu.

“The government agencies hope to collaborate further with the financial industry to strengthen and improve SMEs’ access to advisory and financing,” said the central bank. —