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KUALA LUMPUR: The government is committed to continuing to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on their recovery path in the upcoming 2021 Budget, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz (pix).
He said this would be done through continued support for digitization and automation, building on the foundations set by the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin), Prihatin SME Plus, the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) and the Complementary Initiatives Prihatin (Kita Prihatin)) to foster this transition.
The government will also make it easier for SMEs to accelerate the adoption of digitization under the 2021 Budget that will be presented to Parliament on November 6, he added.
“The records have shown that crucial technology and digital migration has not yet reached critical mass among SMEs.
“We need to raise awareness that with digitization, SMEs can go further in the market and become regional, and how our financial institutions can support them in this process,” he said.
The Finance Minister said this when he delivered his opening remarks at the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) 25th Financial Institutions (FI) and SMEs Award here today.
According to the 2021 Budget, Tengku Zafrul said that the government would also guide SMEs towards business resilience and sustainability, as most SMEs adopted high-growth strategies in decision-making, and this left them little room to respond. effectively to economic shocks.
“Companies must balance their priorities to stay afloat regardless of the changing operational landscape, and the government is looking at how sustainability can be the fundamental premise on which SME-focused measures are built,” he said.
Going forward, he said that despite the lack of visibility on when a Covid-19 vaccine can be found and commercially produced, there are many factors that currently place Malaysia in a leadership position to take advantage of the changing economic landscape.
The factors are, first, Malaysia’s globally recognized ability to control Covid-19, making it a strong point to market the country as the preferred destination for investments in this region, he said.
“Second, our strategic location and our trained human capital support Malaysia as a good destination for companies to relocate from China, in view of the trade tensions between China and the United States.
“And third, the leadership of our Islamic finance and halal economic ecosystem, which has positioned Malaysia as an innovative Islamic finance provider, from grassroots SME finance to multi-billion dollar sovereign placements and Sukuk companies, ”he said.
To ensure that SMEs can stay afloat after Covid-19, Tengku Zafrul expects CGC and financial institutions to make a more serious effort in product and service innovation by capitalizing on the aforementioned advantages.
“This will certainly put the nation on a good foundation for the next phase of our 6R strategy – Revitalize – which will be represented by the 2021 Budget, and the subsequent Reform, underlined by the measures of the 12th Malaysia Plan to be released in January 2021, “he said.
Also present were Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, CGC Chairman Datuk Mohammed Hussein, and CGC Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak.Called
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