OFFICIAL DIGNITARIES: (From left) Fitri, Maxis chairman Raja Tan Sri Datuk Seri Arshad Raja Tun Uda, SME Corporation Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim, Miller and Malaysia SME chief executive officer Wayne Lim during the press conference for the event.
KUCHING: Maxis Bhd (Maxis) in partnership with Malaysia’s leading small and medium enterprises (SME) business newspaper, Malaysia SME and Alliance Bank launched its inaugural SME Business Conference as part of its continuous support and commitment to growing local SMEs.
Themed ‘Empowering Businesses’, the two day conference provided SMEs with exclusive insights on commercial business, advanced technology, government support, and business best practices, as well as a platform for business networking.
The main objective of this conference was to address the key challenges faced by SMEs today. Some of the highlighted challenges include, competing locally and globally, rolling out products and services with faster turn over and at a lower cost, adoption of digital marketing and sales strategy and other on-going issues like expansion funding, minimising capital expenditure, building a professionally run business and branding, managing escalating operational costs, retaining and attracting fresh talent.
According to Fitri Abdullah, Maxis’ head of enterprise and government business, “The conference is an important and timely event as it focuses on creating an ecosystem for SMEs to continue to flourish in the country.
“More importantly, this conference will provide them with a platform to seek further opportunities in their growth and development. This is a defining moment for SMEs as they shift into high gear and revolutionise operations to reinforce their role in the business environment.
“At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to showcase our end-to-end solutions that have been specifically tailor made for their needs, so that we can empower them to invest more efficiently and adopt new business processes,” added Fitri.
Alliance Bank as a strategic partner of the event will be providing advice on financial management.
According to Steve Miller, the head of Alliance Bank SME Banking, “Alliance Bank is committed to investing time and resources to nurture and grow the SME community in Malaysia.
“We are in the business of providing the support, assistance and professional expertise to SMEs to enable them to compete in the global marketplace. Hence, we are pleased to jointly host this conference with Maxis.
“One of the topics that we will be sharing with aspiring entrepreneurs is insights on the loan application process and how the bank looks beyond just financials. These discussion points were compiled based on the best practices we have seen in the market. There will also be talks on how SMEs can plan for IPO,” said Miller.
“The SME Business Conference 2012 is, therefore, a great way to learn more about your business and what you can do to grow it further. I would encourage the SMEs to join us to experience, learn, share and network with other SMEs as well as industry experts,” added Miller.