Awareness of Smidec grants on the rise

Chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim said Smidec received 580 applications from SMEs to start their business in the period from January 2006 to August this year.

Out of the total, Smidec approved 366 applications and disbursed funds amounting to RM9.05 million. This is a sharp increase from just 39 applications received under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005).

"We have also made the matching grants more flexible to include other expenses. For instance, the scheme helps part-finance during incubation period and pays rental for premises. That helps the companies. In addition, the grant is used for plan preparation, prototype flexibility and market studies," she said.

As at August 31, Smidec had disbursed RM18.75 million to business start-ups. Food and beverage, services, and machinery and equipment sub-sectors were the top three recipients of the grants.

Hafsah said that apart from the start-ups, it was heartening to see more SMEs making the effort to obtain quality certification for their processes and products.

Under the matching grant for certification and quality management system, RM90.7 million had been disbursed as at August 31.

"This shows that a lot of SMEs realise they have to enhance quality and put in place good quality management systems," she said.

Other matching grants provided by Smidec include those for product and process improvement, market development, development and promotion of halal products, enhancing product packaging, and for RosettaNet standard implementation.

Smidec also provides soft loans for SMEs, information and communications technology adoption, and factory relocation. These are disbursed by Malaysian Industry Development Finance Bhd.

Overall, Smidec had approved the disbursement of RM199.64 million worth of grants to SMEs as at August 31.

"Currently, the SMEs' contribution to Malaysia's gross domestic product is 32 per cent," Hafsah said. - By Kamarul Yunus

source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Friday/Nation/kystart.xml/Article/index_html