Micro-enterprises make up the bulk of the SME sector at 78.4 percent. (Photo: The Malaysian Insight) The Malaysian Insight cited Ding Hong Sing, President of the SME Association of Malaysia, as saying that there are 1.15 million SMEs, which account for 97.2 percent of businesses in Malaysia.
Since 2015, SMEs have increased by an average 4.9 percent each year. Eighty percent of them are in the service industry. In 2020, this figure increased to 85.5 percent.
Ding said micro enterprises make up the bulk of the sector at 78.4 percent. Its numbers grew by 205,504 from 2015 to 2020 which puts its annual growth rate at 5.4 percent.
Small businesses number 229,987 or 20 percent of total SMEs and medium-sized enterprises, 18,289 or 1.6 percent.
The SME sector has also taken a hit for the first time in 17 years, posting -7.3 percent growth.
Ding said in 2019, SMEs contributed 38.9 percent or 553.5 billion RM of the GDP but this declined in 2020 to 38.2 percent or 512.8 billion RM.
In terms of employment, SMEs are also hiring 48 percent less. In 2020, SMEs employed 7.24 million people, 0.9 percent less than the previous year, when they employed 7.32 million people.
“The year-on-year decline shows SMEs have been severely hit by the coronavirus. Before 2020, the number of people employed increased by at least 3 percent or 200,000 a year.”
The Malaysian Government on December 7 said it will support MSMEs in the post-COVID-19 period with a focus on innovation, digitisation and technology, associated with principles of environmental, social and governance sustainability./.
VNA
