KUALA LUMPUR: Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC), financial institutions (FIs) and development financial institutions (DFIs) should show support for the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) 2030 agenda by directing part of their guarantee and financing resources to micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) that are part of the manufacturing and export sectors' ecosystems.
"I would like to invite CGC, the FIs and DFIs to proactively direct part of your guarantees and financing (resources) towards sectors like aerospace, chemicals/petrochemicals, digital economy, electrical and electronic products (E&E) and pharmaceuticals to help Miti reform our manufacturing industry," Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said at CGC's 28th FI/DFI & SME Awards 2022 here today.
He said such a move would help transform Malaysia's investment and export sectors and put both on more sustainable socio-economic growth.
He said given that MSMEs make up 97.4 per cent of all registered businesses in Malaysia, helping them benefit from global supply chains in high-value industries would be one of the fastest ways to generate broad-based growth in Malaysia.
Furthemore, Zafrul said SMEs have plenty of opportunities in Southeast Asia's green economy estimated to reach US$200-billion by 2030.
Apart from that, he said financing SMEs on building their environmental social and governance (ESG) capacity will also go a long way towards helping them remain in key supply chains that will only become more and more ESG-demanding in the years to come.
The minister said one of the projects proposed for financing is the development of a platform listing available funding options from various banks, including the capital market.
Zafrul noted that CGC has already developed this, and SMEs have started to leverage the platform.
"Enabling and empowering as many as possible the 1.23 million SMEs that we have is one of the fastest ways to rebuild our SMEs and middle class that was severely impacted by the pandemic.
"I would like to stress that MITI sees tremendous opportunities for collaboration with CGC to create more opportunities for MSMEs to flourish and expand their businesses domestically and regionally," he added.
