Sabah to help businesses face economic challenges

0

Joachim (second right) presenting the Business Excellence evaluation certificate to one of the recipients.

KOTA KINABALU: The Ministry of Industrial Development (MID) will adopt the Malaysia Business Excellence Framework (MBEF) criteria this year in a bid to help organisations in Sabah achieve sustainability and competitiveness.

Its minister, Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam, said the decision was made due to the urgent need to revive the economy in the state and to change the way businesses are being run here.

“The framework is also used to evaluate the organisations that are participating in the Quality Management Excellence Award (QMEA), which was introduced back in 1990 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI),” he said.

Joachim revealed that the Global Excellence Model Council (GEMC), which is a council comprising of 12 countries including United States, Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates (UAE), is spearheading the Business Excellence initiative.

He said that Malaysia is also a member of this Council and is represented by the Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC).

He explained that the methods used to evaluate the performance of the participating organisations will be overseen by all the member countries.

It can even be said that the organisations which score high marks in the evaluation may even be as good as the other international organisations listed in the council.

Therefore, Joachim had called on the organisations and industries in Sabah to implement MBEF in their system so that they may achieve business sustainability, competitiveness and operational excellence.

“Organisations that can achieve operational excellence have proven to be more resilient and able in surviving challenging times,” he said during the launch of the Sabah Industry Excellence Awards 2020/2021 at the Sabah International Convention Center (SICC) here on Friday.

Joachim further reiterated that the MID is in full support of the Sabah Maju Jaya Development Plan (SMJ) initiative, a plan which was designed to optimise the state’s resources and revenue, stimulate economic recovery and improve the people’s economy.

He said that his ministry will improve the industrial parks in Sabah so that it will be always be prepared to receive investors.

“This SMJ development plan will definitely bring investment from abroad and within the state to Sabah,” he said.

Joachim had also disclosed that his ministry would be participating in the World Expo Dubai 2020 at the end of this year.

A total of 11 Sabah SMEs have been selected to represent Sabah in the expo.

It is understood that the State Government is targeting RM25 million in bookings during the expo.

The Sabah Industrial Excellence Award (AKIS) was introduced by MID since 2007 to recognise outstanding Sabah companies and to drive continuous improvement in the products produced and services provided.

AKIS is divided into two sectors, namely the Manufacturing Sector Award and the Services Sector Award. These are the available categories for the two sectors:

· Category 1 – Local companies with annual sales of less than RM1 million
· Category 2 – Local companies with annual sales of less than RM5 million
· Category 3 – Local companies with annual sales of less than RM10 million
· Category 4 – Local companies with annual sales of RM10 million to RM25 million
· Category 5 – Local companies with annual sales of more than RM25 million to RM50 million
· Category 6 – Local companies with annual sales of more than RM50 million or foreign-owned companies.

Online registration to participate in the award is now open.