JASIN, Feb 1 — The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) will assist some 646,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country to compete in a more open market under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Its Deputy Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the effort would be implemented comprehensively within two years with the cooperation of all agencies under the ministry before the agreement is fully implemented.

“All SMEs in the nation still have another two years to prepare to face TPPA... the least we will strengthen the capacity through training to make them more competitive and viable.

“The training can be done with the cooperation of Malaysia Productivity Corporation especially in improving the product production knowledge and the latest production management,” he said to reporters after a visit to the Melaka Halal Hub here, today.

He said the ministry had various agencies that are experienced to help the SMEs penetrate the overseas market more effectively after the TPPA is implemented in 2018.

For example, he said Miti via 46 offices of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) and 22 offices of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) in foreign countries would help the companies to promote their products at the international level.

Ahmad said their products would also be promoted online via a special website that would be created for each country participating in the TPPA.

“The website will later be linked to the main website for e-trade or e-marketing activities involving the 12 TPPA countries,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the government would double its efforts to produce more Bumiputera SMEs in the future.

To date, only 38 per cent out of about 646,000 SMEs were Bumiputera-owned and the percentage was considered small compared with the number of Bumiputeras, which constituted 68 per cent of the country’s population, he said.

Out of this, 90 per cent of the SMEs are involved in the services sector.

“This is a new and big challenge for the ministry, however, I expect this effort will be successful if all parties give their cooperation and play their roles,” he said. — Bernama