SME Annual Report 2010/11:
‘Leveraging Opportunities, Realising Growth’
Kuala Lumpur, 23 November 2011– The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Annual Report 2010/11 was released today by YAB Prime Minister as he chaired the 12th meeting of the National SME Development Council (NSDC). The Report is one of the significant initiatives of the Council aimed at providing the current assessment on the performance of SMEs and the SME development programmes during the year.
Performance of SMEs in 2010
In 2010, against a backdrop of a challenging global environment, Malaysian SMEs have continued to remain resilient. Value added of SMEs expanded by 8.4%, well within the official projection of 8 – 8.5%.For the seventh consecutive year, the growth was higher than the overall GDP growth, hence resulting in SME contribution to GDP to increase from 28.1% in 2003 to 31.9% in 2010. The Report which released new time series data on employment and productivity showed that the favourable growth performance of SMEs was accompanied by gains in productivity. Productivity of SMEs grew at an average annual rate of 4% versus 3.1% for large firms during the period 2003 - 2010.
Following these positive developments, the focus now is to integrate SMEs into the economic mainstream, as SMEs leverage on opportunities arising from trade liberalisation and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) in order to realise their growth potential. Hence, the theme of this year’s Report is “Leveraging Opportunities, Realising Growth”.
SME Development Initiatives
In 2010, a total of RM7.1 billion was expended to implement 226 programmes which benefited over 600,000 SMEs. This year, another RM5.9 billion has been allocated to carry out 219 programmes which are expected to benefit more than 400,000 SMEs nationwide. To ensure the effectiveness of these programmes in delivering the desired results, the Government has gone a step further by implementing a result-based approach which is assessed at three levels, namely the macro, programme and firm levels.
SME Masterplan - A New Approach to Accelerate Growth
Moving forward, SMEs are poised to assume an even greater role in propelling Malaysia under the ETP. As the new role will bring along new challenges which include liberalisation measures in the services sector, there is a need for a new approach to SME development to accelerate the growth of SMEs. In this regard, the Government is finalising the SME Masterplan that will chart the policy direction for SMEs through the year 2020 by creating a conducive ecosystem for SMEs to thrive and to transform domestic SMEs to be globally competitive towards enhancing wealth creation and contributing to social well-being of the nation.
The Report incorporated inputs from the Ministries and Agencies involved in SME development across all economic sectors. It is available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia and accessible online via the SME Corp’s website (www.smecorp.gov.my) and SME Info Portal (www.smeinfo.com.my)
For more information, please contact:Ms. Karunajothi Kandasamy tel: 03- 2775 6286 or Ms Suraini Sulaiman tel: 03-2775 6290
