KUCHING: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sarawak need to consistently upgrade their capacity and capability to help propel the state’s economy.
International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Assistant Minister Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais said global competition is very stiff and local entrepreneurs needed to be
prepared.
“We have no choice but to enterprise Sarawak so that everybody will think, see and act not only as entrepreneurs but as global entrepreneurs and at the same time, Sarawak can be a successful trading state in the future.”
Naroden further commented that Sarawak needed to understand and develop its own
business ecosystem to include the state’s own culture of doing business, rules and regulations, logistics, delivery systems, collection centres as well as products in terms of packaging, quality, volume, certification, pricing policy, life span, technology, skilled manpower, salary, among others, he said.
“We must think that we are part of the bigger markets so that our way of doing business as well as our products can be tailored for those bigger markets,” he said at the closing of Sarawak Exports Day 2019 here yesterday.
Naroden also mentioned that Sarawak exports have been in the positive with the main sectors being timber and timber products, oil and gas, crude palm oil (CPO) and ferroalloy and some electronic items while others like pepper, rubber, minerals and agro-based food items are also exported but in small volumes.
As of July, 98.5 percent (about 62,000) of all business enterprises in the state are SMEs. However, the direct contribution by SMEs is only about 22.5 percent to the total state export while the majority (77.5 percent) is from the small portion of the total enterprises or the big players in the state.
“Even so, many of the export components by these big players are mainly from the production by the SMEs. For example, our CPO and many other agro-based products were through contract farming.
“This means most of our SMEs are not yet ready and still dependent on the big players to export their products,” he highlighted.
On the event, Naroden stated that it was meant to create awareness among local businessmen and businesswomen to go
global.
“Export is the ultimate aim of every businesman and businesswoman who dreams to succeed, otherwise you will only be doing business locally.
“Hence, this event will let everybody know that there are lots of opportunities out there, considering large growing populations around us, especially within the Southeast Asian regions.
“Their needs and demands are just like ours. They need food, fruits, drinks, meat, clothing, electronics, machineries and parts, wood and wood products, furniture, pharmaceutical
products, entertainments, and many more,” he said.
“I visited Shanghai a few months ago. It has 26 collection centres for frozen fruits which collect fruits from all over Asian countries.
“With over 19 million people in Shanghai and fruit trading amounting to USD40 million per month, there are a lot of opportunities for our fruits to be exported there,” he continued.
