KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd has announced the official launch of the #SupportLokal initiative to help small and medium enterprise (SMEs) continue to earn revenue or scale up their business digitally during the movement control order (MCO) period.
Its group chief executive officer, Joel Kornreich said the idea of the #SupportLokal initiative came from the need to help small local businesses with their branding and marketing via Facebook marketing and facilitate the use of digital as an alternative revenue channel.
He said in two weeks since its debut on the bank’s social channel and corporate website, the #SupportLokal initiative reached more than 1.7 million Malaysians on Facebook (FB) and generated over 6,000 link clicks to the small local businesses’ websites or FB page.
“These are unprecedented times and we empathise with the local businesses impacted by the ongoing situation.
“As a bank focused on SMEs, we have stepped up our efforts to help them weather the crisis, preserve jobs, and emerge stronger post-pandemic by providing accessible marketing, branding, and sales opportunities, as well as funding,” he said in a statement today.
Kornreich said under the #SupportLokal initiative, business owners will also have access to advisory and training via webinars and videos to help them succeed in their new digital venture.
“For local businesses that do not have prior online presence but want to embark on it now, we are helping to facilitate the process quickly and conveniently with our various strategic partners under the #SupportLokal initiative,” he added.
In addition Kornreich said the bank provides digital branding and marketing support to help promote the products and services of local businesses.
The bank is also collaborating with several e-commerce platforms to help small local businesses widen their reach to more consumers digitally and tap into alternative revenue channels, he said, adding that the e-commerce commission fees will also be subsidised.
Meanwhile, the bank has approved over RM443 million in financing to help ease the cash flow constraints of businesses in Malaysia.
The financing, which is under the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Special Relief Facility, included RM319 million financing to nearly 450 SMEs approved in the last two months. — Bernama
