Comprehensive governance for entrepreneurship initiatives

2 November 2023

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KUALA LUMPUR: A comprehensive governance structure has been established to ensure smooth development and coordination of entrepreneurship initiatives.

Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative Datuk Ewon Benedict said this during his closing speech during the 2024 budget debate in Parliament yesterday, where he responded to concerns about the coordination mechanism for coordination mechanism for entrepreneurship programmes, including concerns about the need for a centralised PMKS centre and related statistics.

He stated that the structure includes the National Entrepreneurship and SME Development Council (MPUPK), chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, which sets the direction and comprehensive policies for entrepreneurship and SME development across sectors.

The National Entrepreneurship Development Council (MPKN), chaired by the Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC), coordinates the direction of entrepreneurship development and implementation of initiatives between the Federal Government and State Governments. The High-Level Task Force on SMEs and the National Entrepreneurship Development Technical Committee, chaired by senior government officials, provide additional coordination, he elaborated.

In addition, state-level Entrepreneurship Development Coordination Committees and district-level Entrepreneurship, Cooperatives, Hawkers, and Small Traders Development Councils facilitate targeted handling of implementation issues and support the needs of entrepreneurs, cooperatives, hawkers, and small traders.

SME Corp monitors entrepreneurship development programmes across various ministries, agencies and state governments through the Integrated Action Plan for SMEs platform, providing evaluations of PMKS development programs presented in MPUPK and MPKN meetings, he said.

Responding to another question, Ewon stated that MEDAC through SME Corp, has developed an online centralised platform called MyAssist MSME to facilitate online information acquisition by MSMEs and to promote programmes and assistance provided to MSMEs.

Through this platform, MSME entrepreneurs can access online advisory services from business counselors (MeetMe), business matching services, and information about programmes offered by entrepreneurship development agencies.

In addition, SME Corp also provides business advisory services and information to MSMEs through PKS Hubs located in 12 locations, including the SME Corp Headquarters in KL Sentral, he said.

On the concerns about the decline in statistics for MSME entrepreneurs, Ewon stressed that based on official data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the number of registered MSMEs in Malaysia for the year 2022 is 1.17 million, compared to 1.23 million in 2021, which accounts for 97.4% of the total businesses in the country.

The decrease of 52,893 MSMEs in 2022 compared to 2021 is driven by various factors such as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses, increasing inflation rates, rising prices of goods, and operational costs, which have affected the sustainability of MSMEs in the country.