Commentary on Budget 2020: Fave bets on Budget 2020 Plan to empower SMEs and F&B merchants in the digital economy
Recognising the government’s action to allocate RM210 million from 2019 to 2021 to support the transition and migration to Industry 4.0 for SMEs, Fave is optimistic about the government’s continued plan to encourage SMEs to grow and raise their competitiveness during this year’s Budget 2020 theme “Shared Prosperity: Engendering High-Quality Inclusive Growth Towards High Income Economy”.
In 2018, Fave has enabled tens of thousands of SMEs to generate RM400 million in revenue growth across the region. Digital transformation is sweeping through the various service sectors, specifically in the food and beverage, wellness centers and retailers’ industry.
With Malaysia’s rising urban population, this has also led to an exponential increase in demand for food products. F&B SMEs face many challenges in their daily operations such as high cost of rental and manpower as well as customer reach.
This year, Fave launched Growth Malaysia, a collaboration between key industry players with the mission to help offline retailers in Malaysia go digital in terms of payments, marketing, data, and financial services. This is in line with the government’s mission to widen and coordinate entrepreneurial activities to be more targeted, inclusive, encompassing in all segments of society.
In 2016, the food services industry contributed nearly 2.8% of our GDP. The sector recorded a gross output value of RM82.8 billion in 2017, whilst engaging 958,803 workers. As a result, we at Fave are optimistic about the government’s announcement to highlight expansionary ways for retailers to go digital for the betterment of the nation’s economy.
Through tech adoption, SMEs can raise productivity to hedge against the country’s challenges should there be an economic downturn, as well as increase its efficiency in the long term. Fave is a merchant-first platform that allows these F&B SMEs to build its technological infrastructure to scale up their businesses and grow efficiently through its simple and easy-to-use mobile app for consumers.
By Joel Neoh Eu-Jin, Co-Founder of Fave