MDEC helping SMEs to take digital leap in the new norm - Director

MDEC Business Digital Adoption director Muhundhan Kamarapullai said the agency under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry has been promoting digitalisation among small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) since the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO).

"We have initiatives like 100 Go Digital where we educate the ecosystem on the latest digitalisation information as we continue to digitally empower the businesses.

“Recently, we announced the #SMART Automation Grant for Services Industry as part of the government’s PENJANA initiative to support the SMEs to take the digital leap in this new norm,” he said in a statement released after a webinar entitled “Can Digitalisation Save Your Business?”, today.

He said MDEC’s efforts were necessary as many SMEs were looking at digital platforms to overcome their challenges that might negatively impact their operations and income generation.

As the agency noted, the Ministry of Finance estimates that two million jobs or approximately eight per cent of the workforce are at risk by the end of 2020. The dismal numbers reveal that the Malaysian economy has been severely crippled by the after effects of the MCO.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia also reported that 53.4 per cent of businesses will only survive for one to two more months if they opt to pay staff anywhere from half to full salaries.

Hence, to address this, the recent National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) offers hope through its various allocations, with RM35 billion in initiatives to stimulate the economy.

Technology, Selangor Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC) head Dr Chua Wen-Shyan, who was also in the webinar panel said the primary focus should be on developing people.

"People or talent are the greatest assets in your company. Motivate them, upskill them with the necessary skills to promote innovation and development within your company to achieve a sustainable digital transformation.

“What we do at SHRDC is to design high impact programmes relevant to the different industries. Each company may require a unique digitalisation roadmap as there is no one size fit all," he said.

Meanwhile, Plus Solar Systems Sdn Bhd chief technology officer and co-founder, Ryan Oh said the push for digitalisation prompted the company to develop smart energy solutions to help businesses save on the bottom line and turn business insights into valuable intelligence that could translate into better business decisions.

“This certainly shows that many businesses are looking at diverse ways to trim the bottom line with energy consumption being one major concern,” he said.