ACCCIM: 43% of SMEs say financing still an issue

KUALA LUMPUR: The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACCCIM)’s SME Survey Report 2017 found that 43% of 808 small and medium enterprise (SMEs) surveyed highlighted that obtaining financing is still an issue.

Of this 62% said it had resorted to commercial banking as a sourcing platform despite the rise of alternative financing. The survey was conducted between April 28 and June 30.

Also noted was the lack of awareness of financing schemes such as Kojadi, SME Loan Scheme, Bank Negara Funds for Small and Medium Industries 2 (FSMI2), SME Corp Business Accelerator Programme, MIDF Soft Loan Scheme for SME and SME Bank Financing Programme for SMEs among respondents, as some 27% claimed to not be aware of these schemes.

ACCCIM chairman of SMEs and human resource development committee Koong Lin Loong said many SMEs interested in listing on the newly launched Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform still lack information on it. Koong also sits on the board of directors of SME Corp.

The survey also found that respondents are yet to understand the Employment Insurance System (EIS), which has been put on hold by the government.

On another note, the survey found that 74% of the respondents are not registered with the human resource development fund as stipulated in the PSMB Act 2001, which says that employers with more than 10 employees in the service sector are required to register.

The Act also stipulates that employers with more than 50 employees in the manufacturing sector are required to register with the fund whereas those with less than the number but more than 10 can opt to register.

Koong said employers who are contributing on the other hand are not tapping into their levy contributions, which can be utilised for employees training.

“The ones who are registered, they contribute because they are obliged to contribute. After contributing they do not know how to use it, nobody advised them how to go about it ,” he added.

About 50% of the respondents said that they have not sent their staff for training programmes provided by the agency as they “do not have related information on training programmes”.

“(Employers are) not sending their staff for training because the training content is not what they want. They are rolling out a lot of management programmes, which the industry doesn’t want. It wants more technical programmes,” Koong said.