KUALA LUMPUR – The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry has allocated RM134.6 million for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to implement various initiatives and programmes for 2024.
In collaboration with SME Corp, its deputy minister R. Ramanan said the programmes for 2024 include the Business Accelerator Programme, Bumiputera Export Promotion Programme, SMEs Go Global and Enterprise 50 awards.
In the previous year, a total of 23,861 SMEs had received RM131.3 million in allocations.
“In 2023, we had the Micro Madani Programme that aided SMEs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he told a press conference at SME Corp building today.
He said in 2024, the target number of SMEs to benefit is 16,700, although SME Corp chief executive officer Rizal Nainy insisted on increasing the target.
Ramanan highlighted the importance of SMEs in the nation’s business ecosystem, contributing 48.2% of job opportunities for locals in SME sectors.
He said the focus is now on facilitating the local SME in the food and beverage and retail sector as they make up more than 80% of the SMEs.
Echoing Ramanan, Rizal agreed the focus will be on the service sector but SME Corp is also looking into “high-impact” industries.
“In the high-impact industries, we want to promote more SMEs to contribute to gross domestic product and nation’s export activities,” Rizal said.
“Among the industries we are focusing on are medical devices, smart farming, aerospace, electronics, biotechnology and halal sectors.”
Meanwhile, asked about the troubled Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) fund, Ramanan said it does not need to undergo forensic auditing as everything had been stated on its website.
He said the recipients and the allocations were already listed on the website for the public’s perusal.
“We don’t have to do an audit to reveal (details about the fund) because if we go to Mitra’s website, we can see the recipients and the amount they received.
“We have revealed everything except grants because there is still ongoing participation (by recipients) and we will only put their name (on the site) afterwards.
“However, we have revealed the amount of funds, names, organisations, non-governmental organisations involved,” he said. – January 9, 2024