Posted By rajlira On 18th July 2008 @ 00:00 In Local
State’s SMEs not quite aware of existence of grants and soft loans available to them: Muhyiddin
KUCHING: The Ministry of International Trade and Industry hopes to have better interaction with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sarawak, particularly in matters related to available schemes, to help boost the sector.
NEW MATRADE OFFICE: Muhyiddin (left) and Taib cut the ribbon to officially open Matrade office at 10th floor Menara Grand. At right is Matrade Sarawak director Ahmad Shanizam Ab Ghani.
Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin believes that there is a need for this interaction given the poor response the state’s SMEs have towards these schemes compared to SMEs in Peninsular Malaysia.
“This (SMEs) is a very important sector, making up more than 96 per cent of our manufacturing sector. It employs more than 5.6 million and is a big contributor to our national Gross Domestic Product, constituting more than 30 per cent,” he told a press conference at the Sarawak Investment and Trade Dialogue and Seminar on the Manufacturing and Services Sector here yesterday.
Based on such strong statistics, he said the government wanted to see SMEs develop further which they (SMEs) could do with the various grants and soft loans ready for the taking.
He said SMEs must also take note that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had already approved RM1 billion in additional funds now being managed by Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (Smidec).
He suggested that Smidec hold more seminars for the SMEs in the state. In his keynote address earlier, Muhyiddin said that as at last June 30, various grant schemes valued at RM449.92 million and soft loans amounting to RM652 million were approved.
Of these figures, RM8.4 million in various grant schemes and RM23.6 million in soft loans were approved for Sarawak, he said.
Muhyiddin also said that as a measure to reduce the impact of the fuel price hike, several facilities had been renewed for SMEs, and these included grants approved after June 1 being given 10 per cent upfront payment and payment for machinery and equipment to be made directly to the supplier.
Besides, he said the government had revised the guidelines for several soft loans schemes managed by the Malaysia Industrial Development Finance Berhad (MIDF) in order to assist SMEs to get soft loan financing, lower the costs of borrowings and encourage the use of energy efficient machinery and devices.
Also, Malaysian exporters could opt for financial assistance through the Market Development Grant (MDG), Brand Promotion Grant (BPG) and Services Export Fund (SEF) offered by the government.
Muhyiddin said RM70.5 million had been approved to 2,357 companies for MDG since July 2002 and that 38 of the companies were from Sarawak.
Whereas for the BPG, 60 companies had been given grants valued at RM103.1 million since Jan 2004 while for the SEF, 319 companies had been given grants of RM19.8 million since Sept 2006, he said.
He said that under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, RM40 million had been allocated to Smidec for the implementation of Skills Upgrading Programme (SUP).
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