KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) said small and medium enterprises (SME) should leverage on technologies in coping with the operational stress generated by Covid-19.
MPC director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman said for businesses to flourish and rise from the crisis, the SMEs need to stay positive and view it as an opportunity to be even more productive.
“Covid 19 brings unprecedented changes in the way we do business and communicate. Real transformation must take place, not just through lip service as 76 per cent of SMEs are micro enterprises with various financial, human capital, managerial capacity and market access constraints.
“To brave similar challenges, SMEs must address financial management discipline and plan for cash reserves as well as review their business model and accelerate adoption of digital technology,” he said.
He said this in a digital forum, “Post Covid-19: Reboot Your Business Model” held today as part of the government’s initiative to motivate the target group into bouncing back and ensure the economy and important supply chain could recover as soon as possible.
According to him, industries and businesses must be alert on the government’s initiatives and programmes in assisting and ensuring fast economic recovery.
In this regard, he said the SMEs should proactively seek the various forms of support provided by government agencies.
He said MPC, an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), conducted digital talks on providing insights to help companies and industries cope with operational stress amidst the pandemic as well as offered work process improvement and waste reduction programmes for SMEs.
“Aside from that, MITI also offers a free programme, ‘Readiness Assessment for Industry 4.0’, which allows SMEs to be assessed under the initiative to enhance productivity and reduce dependency on foreign labour,” he added.
The forum was moderated by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology dean, Assoc Prof Dr Johari Abdullah, with two key speakers from MPC and Serba Dinamik Holdings. — Bernama
