KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 ― The government will focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Budget 2024, said Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim Chee Keong.

He said it was one of the key performance indicators (KPI) set by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

"Foreign direct investment (FDI) is important for Malaysia’s economy and the government will continue to increase efforts to attract more FDI into the country.

"But we also see that domestic direct investment (DDI) is an important component in the country’s economic development, and one of these DDIs is from the SME sector. It is one of the KPIs that the government is focusing on at this time,” he said after inaugurating Allianz Asia’s regional delivery centre here today.

Sim said the focus given to SMEs is because the sector needs a lot of support from various parties, especially from the government.

"Malaysian businesses, especially SMEs, face many obstacles and are in the recovery process after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic a few years ago, so the focus needs to be on making the sector more sustainable for the country’s economic growth,” he added.