A one-stop centre soon to help SMEs
Published on: Saturday, July 02, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: A one-stop centre to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) develop their products right up to marketing will soon materialise under a State Government initiative. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Raymond Tan on Friday announced that a five-acre land has been allocated for this at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Estate. "The launching of this initiative will be held this July 14 and we will be showing the blueprint for the centre.
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"It will be the place where we would help SMEs piece together the needs of their products right up to export and hitting the market shelves. "It is a project we have developed ourselves and KKIP has a larger space to cater to such needs," he said. Tan, who is also Industrial Development Minister, said the centre will be the "infrastructure" for the ministry's latest initiative, called the Supply and Services Outsourcing or in short 'SSO', which is an end-to-end solution provider for SMEs. "We are going to provide the SSO centre with facilities like dry bulk storage, cold storage, processing area, as well as shops, where SMEs develop their products, brands and sell them, as well as for retail stores or companies to source supplies for their shops or for exports," he explained.
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Tan said a major problem faced by SMEs to penetrate the market at present has to do with poor labelling, retail requirements and the lack of capital. While Sabah saw a noticeable growth in the number of SMEs the last five to 10 years, the Federal Government meanwhile has allocated RM7.56 billion this year to run 153 SME development programmes, involving 17 ministries and 65 agencies so that SMEs will be a major contributor to the national Gross Domestic Product by 2020.
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Towards this end, Tan noted an SME registry would be set up to regulate such schemes and programmes via identifying the challenges faced by the local SMEs and advise them on the schemes they need to enrol in to move their products forward. Although no timeframe should be imposed when it comes to developing a market-ready product, Tan said the ministry would also decide on a target as to how many products from local micro businesses the State can generate annually. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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