Malaysia aims for higher SME contribution via 2030 National Entrepreneurship Policy
The Malaysian government is targeting a 50% contribution to GDP by small and medium enterprises (SME) by 2030 from 37.4% registered in 2018. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said entrepreneurship development and SME contributions are important to Malaysia, but stressed that greater financing avenues are needed to build core competencies among local entrepreneurs. “They do not just raise the level of the economy for the public, but also represent a strategy and initiative to free the country from falling into the middle-income trap,” he said.
The 2030 National Entrepreneurship Policy underlines five objectives and six core elements, where the Prime Minister hopes will become the nucleus and catalyst to drive a culture of entrepreneurship in the country. “For that, each ministry and implementing agency involved in entrepreneur development should move as a team in the implementation of the policy,” he said.
Among its targets, the national policy spearheaded by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development aims to increase employment generated by the sector from 66.2% to 80% over the same period. SME’s contribution to total export value will be increased from 17.5% to 30% over that same timeframe, while cooperatives’ turnover will reach RM60 billion from RM40.3 billion. The initiatives also aim to raise Malaysia’s position in global indices, including the global entrepreneurship, competitive and innovation indices as well as the World Bank’s doing business index.
Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof said the national policy is aimed at ensuring that core competencies among entrepreneurs, SMEs and micro-enterprises are developed to create job creators who then fuel the economy. This will include training and education initiatives for entrepreneurs, as well as fostering more innovation-driven entrepreneurs, while expanding the access to capital and finance made available to them. He added that the policy also aims to empower the B40 group to inculcate a culture of entrepreneurship, in line with the government’s aspiration to create one million jobs. “Following a rule of thumb, if we have 250,000 entrepreneurs, and each business has four employees, we can create one million jobs,” he said.
