KOTA KINABALU: The Ministry of Industrial Development has given its support to the one-day Business in the Cloud 2.0 (BITC) conference to be held later this year to further innovate local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the new business world.
The event scheduled for October 16, will also see the launching of the Sabah Business Gateway Hub serving as a one-stop business centre to answer the needs of local and foreign investors interested to start up SMIs or SMEs in the state.
Eric Cheng, managing director of Core System Integration Sdn Bhd, the chief organiser of the event, disclosed yesterday that BITC 2.0 is a sequel to a similar event held in July last year.
He made a courtesy call on Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah earlier this week to brief him on the upcoming event and to invite the latter as guest of honour at its official opening.
Tan in accepting the invitation, expressed support of his ministry to the event, pointing out that this private sector initiative would directly support his ministry’s efforts to promote the development of SMEs in Sabah.
The minister was pleased to learn that the proposed business gateway hub to be set up in the state capital would also serve as a gateway to provide rapid business deployment or start-up of SMEs and SMIs in the state.
Cheng told the minister that the proposed hub would become a centre for business communication, collaboration, supply chain and an access to latest information on SME/SMI development in Sabah.
“It shall be a hub for investors and entrepreneurs to share, discuss and exchange views via an interactive platform, like blogs, forums, discussion groups, live chats and polls,” he said.
Cheng said the development of a business hub in Kota Kinabalu is part of a transformation programme of a news portal known as www.sabahtoday.com.my established in August 2009 that provides local news with focus on industries in Sabah.
“The SabahToday is managed by a local firm, Sync Max, featuring news on government, industries, tourism and other topics and thus far had 420,000 visitors with an average of between 800 to 3,500 visitors daily,” he said.
In his briefing to the minister on the latest initiative, Cheng explained that the main objective of the conference is to assist participants in optimising their business process with highly effective solutions.
“We shall introduce and promote cost effective mobile and cloud solutions to local SMIs and SMEs,” he added.
That was why, he explained, event partners should include corporate bodies like Celcom Axiata Malaysia (Sabah), Avet Azure Malaysia, IBM Malaysia, Ecentrix Sdn Bhd and Sync Max Sdn. Bhd.
Cheng was accompanied by Heiron, Celcom’s Business Marketing Manager for Sabah during the meeting.