SMEs are important to the Malaysian economy. Companies and organisations roll out initiatives to strengthen this industry.

It has become a widely known statistic that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represents 99.2% of local businesses in the country. According to the 2008 SME Annual Report by SME Corporation, businesses in this category are an important source of growth and extremely relevant in the new economic model of transforming Malaysia into a high-income economy.

Nevertheless, businesses in Malaysia, big and small, were one way or another affected by the economic and financial crisis. Fortunately for the country, we managed to record growth within the economy through our Q4 2010 results, as announced by Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia.

As such, it comes to no surprise that within the last 12 months, we began to see more initiatives for SMEs – be it from government agencies or big corporations. Among these initiatives, those that are ICT related are set in motion to aid SMEs get back into the playing field.

Government Agency Support
The Malaysian government has put forward its high interest in strengthening SMEs in the country in its announcement of Budget 2010 where the government has allocated 79 SME funds as well as granting a total on RM8.8billion to be administered by various agencies for the cause.

RM350million of the total grant was granted to the SME Corporation Malaysia – the country’s single dedicated government agency that formulates overall policies and strategies for SMEs. The agency also acts as a point of advisory as well as coordinating programmes across all related ministries and agencies.

Among its recent programmes is SME Corp’s collaboration with the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) – a government-owned corporation established to facilitate and develop Malaysia’s ICT initiative, MSC Malaysia. The programme dubbed SCORE+ is an annual survey that sets a benchmark for participating MSC Malaysia status SMEs, which analyses the necessary planning, business intelligence and decision making process needed in a systematic framework.

It also allows both parties to accurately identify the strengths of individual companies and providing the necessary assistance and support according to the SCORE+ evaluation. Dato’ Hafsah Hashim, CEO of SME Corp adds: “[Through the SCORE+ Programme] our SMEs will be prepared to compete on a level playing field in the globalised marketplace.”

In addition, SME Corp has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with eBay and PayPal recently. The collaboration sets to leverage e-commerce to help SMEs gain more global business opportunities. With that aim in mind, the partnership is set to provide training, knowledge and consultancy on how SMEs can market their products on an international platform, namely on the World Wide Web.

Datuk Ir. Dr. Mohamed Al Amin Hj. Abdul Majid, Chairman of SME Corp comments: “[The partnership] reflects on our mission of helping SMEs to expand their businesses by going online to reach new customer.”

Corporations Are Doing It Too
Although, we can now be sure that governmental agencies are not the only ones aiding to strengthen SMEs in the country. For example, multi-national corporation Hewlett-Packard Malaysia (HP Malaysia) goes into a partnership with ATOZ Computer Sdn Bhd in setting up an IT equipment consultation and purchase one-stop centre dedicated to SMEs and SOHOs.

The Smart Office Solutions Store in Plaza Lowyat, Kuala Lumpur offers convenient HP commercial IT products along with solutions in one location to provide Small Office Home Offices (SOHOs) and SMEs an opportunity to introduce IT into its daily business. Its store will also help SMEs and SOHOs to understand what are the necessary IT solutions to enhance their business by on-hand consultation and on-the-spot product testing.

Danny Lee, Country General Manager, Personal Systems Group of HP Malaysia comments: “Through the HP Smart Office Solutions Store, we are confident that we can help our customer simplify their IT experience and make the right decisions for their business IT needs of increasing efficiency and productivity, and ultimately ensuring better business outcomes.” Lee adds that this is the first among the 50 stores around Malaysia to be launched by HP in the next several years.

In another example, Google AdWords is helping thousands of Malaysian SMEs as an online advertising platform. Google’s service seeks to help SMEs grow its business by extending its reach to the Internet in order to access a wider local and global market and use cost-effective measures.

PYOTravel is among the many SMEs that benefitted from using Google AdWords. General Manager of PYOTravel, Francis Chin relates his experience with Google AdWords: “Our criteria were simple – we needed an advertising solution that had global reach, low-cost and ROI measurements tool. Google AdWords allows us to decide our budget, the language used, timing and geographical coverage for our search engine marketing ads.”

Joining Forces
It is not unheard of that corporations and government agencies collaborating. In an effort to enhance the competitive edge of SMEs in the country, Microsoft, HP and DiGi joins forces, with support by SME Corp and MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry), to create a reality TV programme called MakeITWork.

According to MITI, the programme features 10 recent business make-over projects involving local SMEs, which are provided funds for IT facilities, along with guidance in formulating a business plan. MakeITWork’s website showcases ten industries, where all case studies and web episodes are available for reference.

It aims to provide better understanding on how IT can benefit SMEs and how can they obtain good solutions that is well within their budget. It also provides SMEs a roadmap for any future expansion.

Initiatives on the Rise
As many of us know, a high percentage of local businesses are SMEs and these companies are contributing to about 30% to 35% of Malaysia’s GDP. As such it is an important market and industry for the country and it will remain that way for years to come.

The next few years, we will see an increase in ICT initiatives and solutions tailored for SMEs from both government agencies and corporations in the country. SMEs should take these opportunities in order to grow its business, as well as being visible in the local and global arena.