KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — The National Entrepreneurship Framework (NEF), which the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development began developing in late 2018, is expected to be launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in July, says SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp).
The framework would outline 21 strategic objectives under four strategic thrusts to promote entrepreneurship development, the agency said.
“It will serve as the basis in formulating the National Entrepreneurship Policy (NEP) with the main objective to create a comprehensive, inclusive and holistic entrepreneurship ecosystem,” SME Corp said in a statement.
The National Entrepreneur and SME Development Council (NESDC), previously known as the National SME Development Council, today endorsed eight broad measures to further boost SME gross domestic product (GDP) growth so as to reach the target of 41 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) contribution to the country by 2020.
The endorsement took place at the first council meeting chaired by the prime minister.
The council members deliberated on some of the broad measures, including intensifying digitalisation among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhancing SMEs integration in the supply chain and supporting more high-growth SMEs with relevant incentives.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of current challenging global and domestic economic environment, relative high cost of doing business and relative high export performance of large firms versus SMEs, the macro target for both SME GDP and SME exports contribution was highly optimistic and challenging.
SME Corp said hence the government had agreed to introduce additional macro targets for year 2020 and beyond — annual growth target of SME GDP of between 6.0 and 8.0 per cent per annum, and annual growth target of SME exports of between 5.5 and 7.5 per cent per annum.
“Based on the overall GDP growth of 4.7 per cent in 2018 and official overall GDP growth estimate of between 4.3 and 4.8 per cent in 2019 as announced by Bank Negara Malaysia recently, SME GDP growth is estimated to sustain at 5.8 per cent in year 2018 and 2019, without the necessary intervention and stimulus provided by the government in addition to the existing allocation for SME development,” it said.
The government has allocated a total of RM13.02 billion to undertake 162 SME development programmes through 17 ministries and more than 60 agencies under the SME Integrated Plan of Action. — Bernama
