SMEs Sector To Grow Above Six Per Cent This Year

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- SME Corp Malaysia expects the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector to grow above six per cent this year driven by the good domestic demand.

Source from (Bernama): http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=936327
Published: March 22, 2013

Source from (The Sun Daily): http://www.thesundaily.my/news/642679
Published: March 22, 2013

Its chief executive officer, Datuk Hafsah Hashim, said the sector has always been consistent in terms of growth and often outpaced the nation's.

"Every year, the SMEs achieve growth about one or two per cent better than the country's and it will be the same this year," she told reporters after the launch of SMIDEX 2013 and Asean-Korea SME Conference here Thursday.

Bank Negara Malaysia's Annual Report 2012 said the nation's economy was expected to remain on a steady growth path, with an expansion of five to six per cent this year, anchored by the continued resilience of domestic demand and supported by a gradual improvement in the external sector.

Hafsah said the good economic outlook would boost the SME sector.

She said the sector's performance would depend on how the SME policies and programmes had been carried out.

"SMEs are important agents of economic growth, their development has been recognised as a priority on the national agenda and many programmes have been put in place to transform them into competitive, resilient and value-creating entities," she said.

It was reported earlier that SME Corp expected the SMEs to contribute 40 per cent to the nation's gross domestic product by 2020, from the current 32.5 per cent.

Hafsah said SMEs needed to leapfrog growth while technology and innovation would help the industry move forward.

"SMEs have been good impact providers to the economy with technology and innovation identified as the driving forces towards achieving a sustainable SME growth in the country," she said.

She said SMEs' good growth would help the country achieve a gross national income of US$15,000 even before 2020.

-- BERNAMA