Merdeka SME e-Fair to see participation of up to 20,000 business

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 10,000 to 20,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to participate in the 10-day Merdeka SME e-Fair that starts today with the aim of connecting them with solution providers and highlighting financial aids available to them.

The virtual fair, themed "Thriving SME Recovery and Resilience in The New Norm", is jointly organised by Money Compass Media, Max Capital Management Holding Ltd, uLearnMONEY, and Celik Wang.

Merdeka SME e-fair organising director Amy Seok said due to the current scenario of the local economy slowing down and the many lockdown restrictions that had been placed, SME businesses were confronting tougher challenges.

"For SMEs to survive and recover post-Movement Control Order and post-COVID-19, they need to acquire the necessary skills on how to create funding and cash flow solutions for sustainability, digitally transform their businesses, and create new business models.

"We are trying to reach out to more SMEs through efforts to collaborate with all the (relevant) associations," she said during the launch today.

Seok said there were 100 exhibition booths and she expected additional participants in the coming days.

"These 100 exhibition booths comprise association booths as well as those of SMEs, government agencies and some solution providers. We believe this is a strong community to start off with. We also have received 12,000 sign-up visitors and a few hundred registrations for the webinars," she added.

The 10-day event will feature a virtual fair, multilingual SME webinars, gamification, regional networking sessions, and business matching.

The Merdeka SME e-Fair 2021 is segmented into three major parts: virtual exhibition, cloud conference and SME marketplace.

-- BERNAMA