Syed Ali Alattas, President of the DPMM, has asked the government to reserve about 30% funding option in a proposed stimulus package for the benefit of the SME sector. He advocated for a fixed funding allocation for small businesses in order to enable them resolve their liquidity issues.
The Malaysian government has announced the extension of Malaysian Ringgit (RM) 5 billion under the Working Capital Guarantee Scheme in the stimulus package presented during April this year. According to the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA), the scheme was designed to help SMEs ride out the global economic downturn.
Propagating the ‘fixed allocation for SME’ concept, Mr Alattas stated that increasing the allocation would help the SMEs procure additional finance, by means of which they can upgrade and innovate their machineries. He also asked the Malaysian banks to be more proactive and aggressive to financially assist the SMEs in order to help them resolve their credit problems.
