Malaysian govt to help SMEs

Source From (Business Times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/MINIMA/Article/

Published: on 03 May 2012
By Roziana Hamsawi

THE government is prepared to assist small- and medium- sized companies to cope with the newly-announced minimum wage, said Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.

He said the assistance would be in the form of training to increase workers' productivity.

"We understand that some of these companies, especially the new start-ups, may find the minimum wage as a little high for them ... if before they have been paying RM450, now it is doubled," he said.

Mukhriz said with proper training, employers can expect the rise in wages will be met with double or triple increase in productivity level.

"Companies are given a year to implement this and we, through our agencies, are prepared to assist some in providing their workers with training courses to increase productivity," he told reporters yesterday.

Earlier, Mukhriz officiated at the opening of the 12th Kopitiam Killiney at Carrefour Subang Jaya and later, had an one-hour dialogue with some of the Graduate Entrepreneur Fund (TUS) entrepreneurs.

During the dialogue, a few issues were raised by the TUS participants such as difficulty in getting their loans approved and the lack of guidance and training from franchisors to their franchisees.

Meanwhile, Killiney Malaysia, which is managed by master franchisor Estinwira Sdn Bhd, plans to open 50 outlets by 2015.

Estinwira will also open outlets in the Middle East, namely in Mecca and Dubai by year-end, said executive chairman Datuk Ahmad Ramzi Mohamad Zubir in a statement.