Business

Saturday July 11, 2009

SME Corp to clear backlog of approvals


KUALA LUMPUR: There is a backlog of soft loan approvals to small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) compared with the number of applications that have been submitted to the Small and Medium Industries Development Corp (Smidec), according to Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.

“We are short-handed and we hope to rectify this situation under SME Corp (the rebranded name for Smidec),” he told reporters after officiating the HSBC Youth Entrepreneurship Summit yesterday.

Mukhriz said SME Corp would enable better coordination of SME programmes across all sectors, covering 14 ministries and 60 agencies, and in turn minimise the overlap of functions.

“We want to be coordinated to tackle SME issues and be in a position to assist SMEs in their various capacities,” he said.

He said SME Corp would be the secretariat for the National SME Development Council, to be chaired by the Prime Minister, and would function as an information and one-stop referral centre, coordinate data and programmes, and undertake research pertaining to SMEs.

It will report to the council and be placed under the International Trade and Industry Ministry.

Mukhriz said that as at May 2009, of 1,371 applications received under the soft loan programme for SMEs, 750 had been approved for the amount of RM428.29mil. He said SME Corp had been on a hiring mode to alleviate the backlog of loan approvals.

“We expect, within the next three months, the backlog will be handled and from then on, we will get back on track with (achieving) our KPIs (key performance indicators) in terms of time spent processing these applications,” he said.

Mukhriz said the backlog of processed loan applications “ran into the thousands and was a cumulative figure.” As at May 2009, from 384 applications received to provide matching grants for SMEs to develop and promote halal products, 276 applications had been approved, amounting to RM16.47mil, he said.

For the soft loans for information and communications technology adoption, Mukhriz said of 101 applications received, 26 had been approved, totalling RM50.01mil, as at May this year.

The HSBC Youth Entrepreneurship Summit is held in conjunction with the SME Solutions Expo 2009 from Thursday to today at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre.

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