KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (Medac) and agencies under its supervision are committed and determined to revive the local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to ensure the wellbeing of the people.
Its Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said the ministry would make sure the affected MSMEs would receive government assistance as soon as possible without any bureaucracy.
“Medac officers have been instructed to ensure all agencies expedite the application assessment and address each complaint from the MSMEs.
“Among the initiatives carried out by Medac are brushing aside reference process via CTOS and CCRIS in any government financial assistance package,” he said during his address when officiating the Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (Samenta) CEO Forum and Anniversary ceremony here, today.
Based on Medac’s movement control order 3.0 impact study on the entrepreneurship landscape in Malaysia this year, Noh said 37,415 businesses were recorded to have fold up and 70 per cent of them or 26,007 were micro businesses.
Towards this end, he said through Budget 2022, the government has introduced various programmes to strengthen the country’s economy wherein a total of RM14.2 billion has been allocated specifically for SMEs.
“Hence, SMEs must capitalise on various benefits and opportunities provided by the government.
“They must also be positive in adapting to the new normal by building their business in line with this new setup, understand consumer behaviour and grab the opportunities in new industries,” he said.
The SMEs need to rise to revive their businesses and find time to look for balance in their success previously and the prevailing challenges so that they can redefine their business direction, he added.
Meanwhile, Samenta chairman Datuk William Ng said the pandemic had emphasised both the importance of SMEs in supporting the economy and in driving employment, and yet had shown the fragility of Malaysia’s SME ecosystems.
In 2020 alone, SME community had suffered a loss of RM40.7 billion, he noted.
“When times are good SMEs are generally expected to support the growth of our economy, but in difficult times, they are often the last to receive support. That is why associations such as Samenta is important and needed as a voice of the fragmented SME sector,” he said.
Ng said the SME sector is at critical juncture now, whereby productivity and competitiveness have suffered due to the pandemic and rapid changes in technology and the market.
“As such, moving forward, our efforts will be to get our SMEs to adopt digitalisation rapidly, move further into automation and understand the new standards for environmental, social and governance,” he added.
Source: https://www.malaymail.com/news/money/2021/12/08/entrepreneur-development-ministry-continues-commitment-efforts-to-revive-ms/2026932