THE Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said it is working with the government to improve workers’ technology skills moving digitalisation.

Its president Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said MEF owns an academy and works with local institutions to train workers registered with the federation.

“We work closely with the government to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to improve the necssary skills,” Syed Hussain said.

“We have identified several sectors for this programme such as blockchain, computer programming, cybersecurity and the internet of things.”

The Malaysian Insight yesterday reported that small businesses were not moving towards digitalisation because they lacked training in automation or artificial intelligence.

SME Association Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing said without government support, SMEs would not be able to adopt and use digitalisation in their businesses.

He suggested that the government hire foreign experts to train industry players.

“If you want SMEs to be able to use industrial revolution 4.0 or high-end digital technology, the government should train micro and SMEs to improve productivity,” Ding said.

The World Bank in a report last year stated that, despite the SME sector’s position as the backbone of the country’s business environment, SMEs were lagging behind their regional counterparts in adopting digital technology.

It added that Malaysia’s SMEs have been underperforming compared to peer countries, both in terms of output and productivity levels.

Syed Hussain added that other than providing training, MEF also has a close relationship with the Human Resources Ministry and HRDCorp.

“We give support and other incentives. Also, we are approaching the Higher Education Ministry to offer training to fresh graduates.

“We are also actively involved in technical and vocational education and training,” he said.

Last year, Malaysia’s e-commerce value soared 33% to RM896 billion after registering an income of RM675 billion in 2019, according to latest data from the Statistics Department.

A majority of them used technologies on social media (60%) and mobile internet (63.8%) while only a minority explored frontier technologies like data analytics (6.3%).

This is supported by a survey commissioned by SME Corporation and Huawei Technologies, which revealed that usage of internet, cloud computing and data analytics were uncommon among micro and SMEs.

A study conducted by SME Association of Malaysia revealed that only 26% of SMEs had chosen digital technologies as their main post-pandemic growth strategy. A majority of SMEs (57%) have not even started digitalising their business.

In his Budget 2022 speech, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz announced that special focus would be given to help local entrepreneurs make the digital shift.

Tengku Zafrul had said entrepreneurs of micro and SMEs were eligible to receive benefits adopting e-commerce, online marketing and digital payments.

This included the SME digitalisation initiative, where a 50% matching grant of up to RM5,000 per SME would be provided over a period of five years for the subscription of digital services that would enhance their productivity and competitiveness. – February 5, 2022.