PUTRAJAYA, July 9 — The government today said it will trim down the funding system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the newly created coordinating body, the SME Corporation, to optimise the sector's performance.
It has allocated RM8.8 billion for SME Corp, of which RM6.9 billion is in the form of loans while the rest in the form of grants.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the loan programme now has 53 schemes which will be streamlined to 19 while the grant programmes will be reduced from 26 to 14.
This rationalisation, said Najib, was in line with the objectives of setting up SME Corp, which is to ease red tape and spur growth among SMEs, a sector which contributes almost 37 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
Currently, there are more than 560,000 SMEs operating nationwide.
SME Corp will be tasked to coordinate all matters pertaining to SME operations while monitoring the performance of the sector. It will be jointly operated by the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation or Smidec and the Trade Ministry.
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Also, more stringent monitoring to prevent 'fake' SMEs from siphoning off the rakyat's tax money....