KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) is partnering the World Bank to make local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) more relevant in the global economy, in adjusting to the current trends.
Chief executive officer said SME Corp was in the midst of gathering data of the SMEs to be shared with the international financial institution.
“The World Bank does research and studies regularly. By sharing data, it will enable the World Bank to measure our participation and results of the various communities of the (SME) industry.
“They can also provide us with the outcome in terms of growth (projections) as well as recommendations on which sectors to focus on,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the National ASEAN SME Policy Index (ASPI) Dissemination Seminar here today.
He said SME Corp would follow-up with the World Bank and expects to get feedback by this year.
Noor Azmi noted that the government wants to produce more high growth companies and at the same time give greater attention to high demand sectors.
Meanwhile, Minister of Entrepreneur Development Mohd Redzuan Yusof who launched the seminar said measures provided by the World Bank would also disclose those areas in need of skill set, such as the aviation and blockchain sectors.
“We want to capitalise on this and must not lose focus. When we announced the third Malaysia car project for example, it was not purely about making it, but also about applying the skill set,” he added.
He said to further promote the SME development in Malaysia, ministries and agencies would need to benchmark their policy framework against ASEAN member countries.
In this context, ASPI served as the best assessment tool based on a comprehensive policy framework, while allowing for benchmarking not only amongst participating countries, but also international best practices.
“We will also look into aligning local SMEs to the megatrends and Industrial Revolution 4.0 to accelerate growth. This will be achieved through a two-pronged strategy approach for high growth and innovative firms as well as microenterprises.
“It includes ramping-up the creation of high growth and innovative firms through targeted assistance in automation, mechanisation, digitalisation and robotisation,” Mohd Redzuan said. — Bernama
