KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector has scaled up as growth data indicates positive development, said Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick.
He said there was a 16.9 per cent drop in micro-sized enterprises, from 923,667 in 2022 to 767,421 in 2023. However, there was a 35.8 per cent increase in the number of small-sized enterprises and a 7.9 per cent rise in the number of medium-sized enterprises.
“MSMEs are the backbone of any economy worldwide. In Malaysia, MSMEs account for 1.1 million enterprises or 96.9 per cent of all businesses in 2023,“ he said when announcing MSMEs’ performance at his office here.
The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry’s deputy minister, Datuk R Ramanan, its secretary-general, Datuk Seri Suriani Ahmad, Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, and SME Corporation Malaysia chief executive officer Rizal Nainy were also present.
Elaborating, he said MSMEs continued to demonstrate resilience last year, which is in line with Malaysia’s overall economic performance, despite facing challenging external conditions.
“I am optimistic that we will achieve the target of MSMEs contributing 41 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, as set under the 12th Malaysia Plan,“ he said.
On July 26, DOSM reported that MSMEs’ contribution to the GDP grew by 5.0 per cent in 2023, with a value added of RM613.1 billion and contributing 39.1 per cent to Malaysia’s economy.
The MSMEs’ growth has surpassed Malaysia’s GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2023, with the services and manufacturing sectors as the main contributors, which comprise 84.8 percent of the MSMEs’ GDP, it added.
In another development, Ewon said the ministry will conduct two engagement sessions with the MSME community to gather suggestions for Budget 2025 and to help this sector achieve better performance.
“A session will be held in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 6 and for MSME community in Sabah and Sarawak another session will be held in Sabah on Aug 26, in collaboration with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living,“ he added.
