SMEs urged to leverage on BNM SME Fund

KUALA LUMPUR: Local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are urged to leverage on Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)’s SME Fund, which currently stands at RM3 billion, to finance and lower their cost of doing business.

Assistant Governor Jessica Chew said the fund, which served all economic sectors including startups and businesses with no collateral, can be utilised for working capital and for the purchase of machineries.

“Previously, we had four different funds for different purposes. We have consolidated them under one fund to make it easy for SMEs as some funds were fully utilised but some were under utilised.

“Our rates are much cheaper (than that available in the industry), so we would advise those under served segments to leverage on the BNM SME fund,” she told a media briefing recently.

The BNM SME Fund, a revolving fund that is convenient and affordable for SMEs, was introduced in the late 90s with a total allocation of RM10.4 billion.

Of the total, RM7.4 billion has been utilised, with the lending approval revolved three times to the equivalent of RM30.2 billion, benefiting more than 74,000 SMEs.

Chew said the fund, available at all commercial and Islamic banks, development financial institutions (DFIs) and Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC), provided financial assistance of up to RM5 million KUALA LUMPUR: Budget 2018 will be driving greater value for logistics industry in the wake of even greater digital connectivity, DHL Express Malaysia and Brunei (DHL) opined in a commentary.

According to managing director Christopher Ong, DHL is encouraged by the RM83.5 million allocated in the budget for the first phase of the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) that is expected to further boost the growth of local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Ong noted that this serves as a great opportunity for SMEs and SMEs were required to repay within five years.

She explained that there was a comprehensive financing support for enterprises at all stages of their business life-cycle and that one out of five financing approvals were for start-ups.

“Financial institutions are the largest financing providers for SMEs, contributing about 97 per cent of total financing to SMEs across the spectrum.

“Thirty per cent of the financing approved under the BNM SME Fund went to startups. “The continuous support is reflected by the increasing share of SME financing compared with financing to the corporate sector. This indicates that SMEs are the key growth area for financial institutions, moving forward,” she added.

Chew pointed out that although ample funds were provided by financial institutions, ministries and agencies to support SMEs, lack of awareness about the availability of such funds in the country, including the BNM SME Fund, was a challenge to SMEs’ future development and limited the segment’s contribution to the gross domestic product.

“SMEs that are looking for financing, sometimes don’t know that there are such funds as the BNM SME Fund and some applications (for funding) may not be within banks’ risk appetite. “But, (as for) our fund, there is still allocation for SMEs to tap,” she added. — Bernama

Budget 2018 driving greater value for logistics

to expand abroad and tap into regional markets in addition to creating strategic partnerships with key organisations such as international trade facilitators.

“Logistics is one of the most important aspects to help companies scale internationally and our commitment in continuously providing this support remains steadfast,” he said.

“We believe that Budget 2018 is a good step forward in increasing the opportunities for local businesses and gives way for the logistics industry to contribute in preparation for the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.”