MANUFACTURING SECTOR NEED TO FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION - MED

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19  -- In order to be successful in the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0), the manufacturing sector needs to focus on high technology as well as innovation, said Deputy Entrepreneur Development (MED) Minister Datuk Dr Hatta Ramli.

The ministry and its agencies he said, were ready to help the potential sector to focus on high-tech activities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis.

“This (manufacturing) sector has high turnover and is capable of contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he told reporters after opening the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Entrepreneurship Conference 2019, here today.

This year, a total of 164 Small and Medium-sized Entreprises (SME) development and entrepreneurship programs were implemented by the ministry in collaboration with various ministries and agencies with a financial commitment of RM13.70 billion.

These include 28 programs focusing on technology and innovation with funding of RM148 million.

Meanwhile, in his keynote speech, he said the government has set aside allocations for various initiatives to support IR4.0 and digitalisation.

This includes RM70 million allocation under Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to set up 14 one-stop digital enhancement centres to facilitate access to financing and capacity building of businesses, especially SMEs.

“We also have put RM550 million to provide smart automation matching grants to 1,000 manufacturing and 1,000 services companies to automate their business processes,” he said.

-- BERNAMA