Pak Lah: SME loans are for all

The Star; Saturday January 20, 2007


Pak Lah: SME loans are for all

BY SHAHANAAZ HABIB AND NG CHENG YEE

newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government wants all loans available to small and medium enterprises
to be given out regardless of their racial status, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Prime Minister said the matter was raised at the Sixth National SME Development
Council meeting yesterday.

“It is not just the government institutions but the commercial banks and financial
institutions.

“They have given out financial assistance to the SMEs. Which means that there is the
prospect for them (SMEs) to get loans.��?


Key meeting: Abdullah chairing the Sixth National SME Development Council meeting in
Kuala Lumpur on Friday. With him are Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri
Ong Ka Ting, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, Bank
Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz and other ministers.
He was asked about concerns raised by the non-bumiputra SMEs on the difficulty in
securing funds for their business.

The Selangor MCA Youth recently brought the issue to the Finance Ministry of
non-bumiputras not getting loans from SME banks.

This year, Abdullah said, the council approved 190 key programmes for SME development,
with RM3.7bil being committed.

Of the programmes, he said, 134 were aimed at building the capacity and capability of
SMEs.

With the implementation of these programmes, Abdullah said, about 110,000 SME accounts
were expected to receive a total of RM51bil in loans from financial institutions.

This would be complemented by about 37,000 loans to be approved under the various
Government schemes.

SMI Association of Malaysia president Chua Tiam Wee called on the Government to inject
more funds into SME banks to ensure that disbursement of funds could be carried out fast
and be given out to all races.

“Currently, we understand that these banks are either under-capitalised or had given
out loans meant for bumiputras on behalf of other agencies like the Entrepreneur and
Cooperative Development Ministry.

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