Sabah SMEs keen on agriculture help
Published on: Thursday, January 24, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (Sedia) welcomed the opportunities in working closely with the Small and Medium Enterprise Association of Sabah (SME Sabah).
Sedia Chief Executive Datuk Dr Mohd Yaakub Johari said as the one-stop authority for the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC), it offers various investment incentives and measures to support SME development in Sabah.
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“Investment incentives offered under the SDC utilise a regional approach, which differ from the sectoral tax incentives generally offered throughout Malaysia,” he said in a statement, Wednesday.
“Under SDC, investors are eligible for 100 per cent tax exemption for a period up to ten years, available for specific regions or clusters as specified under SDC Strategic Development Areas (SDAs).”
He said this after a courtesy call by SME Sabah council members led by its President and co-founder Foo Ngee Kee on Yaakub (pic).
Upon hearing about the SDC SDAs, the visiting delegation was keen to know more about the Sabah Agro-Industrial Precinct (Saip) in Kimanis.
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Foo mentioned that several SME Sabah members are involved in agriculture downstream activities, and he was keen to hear about assistance provided in this industry.
With an estimated area of 185 acres, Yaakub said, SAIP is envisaged as a centre of excellence in agro-biotechnology that optimises the State’s biodiversity and abundant natural resources to produce higher value-added food and specialty products based on botanicals, aquatic plants and animals.
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“Entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate in the Agro-SAIP training programme, which have benefited 2,021 participants from throughout Sabah over the span of 36 courses since its inception in 2012, which assist local SMEs to enhance their skills, expertise and capabilities.
“The Agro-SAIP training programme was established with the aim to empower technopreneurs in the agro-based industry, by giving the necessary exposure and transfer of knowledge, especially on the processing of agro-food and specialty natural products (SNPs),” he said.
He added, through the training programme, participants are given access to experienced speakers and industry representatives in various sectors; speakers well-versed in pharma-herbs, controlled environment farming, post-harvest handling technology, agro-organic and agro-food industries, business and marketing through e-commence, and bio-science and biotechnology had been invited to come and share their experience and expertise with participants.
Meanwhile, having realised the potential of SME contributions to the state economy, Sedia had developed initiatives and has been actively involved in SME development in Sabah since during the Second Phase of SDC (2011-2015) and into the current Third and final Phase of SDC (2016-2025).
Yaakub said, the SME programmes are also in line with one of the three principles of SDC, which is capturing economic value activities.
“The SDC SME programmes are to help entrepreneurs, start-ups and companies to discover business ideas, validate as well as scale up their ventures.”
A crucial component of SDC SME programmes has been the SDC SME Incubator programme, conducted over a two-year period through two types of setups based on SMEs’ location, namely In-Situ and Ex-Situ Incubation.
“As at December 2018, there are a total of 153 approved in-situ and ex-situ incubatees, and a total of RM13.73 million in grants provided for them.
“The SDC initiatives by Sedia support, and are aligned with, the State and Federal governments’ efforts and initiatives to develop local and Bumiputera SMEs, so as to increase the number of locally developed businesses, products and services,” he said.
In Budget 2019, the State Government allocated RM24.45 million for special fund and loan for entrepreneurial development including for youths, to help encourage the activities of SMEs in Sabah, thus highlighting their importance and contribution to the state economy.
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Recent investments in Sabah had been largely contributed by domestic investment, reflecting a positive development to the government’s efforts in intensifying value-added activities among local entrepreneurs and investors.