(From left) Ding, Noh and and Platinum Business Awards 2022 organising chairman Chin Chee Seong at the launch in Petaling Jaya.
SMALL and medium enterprises (SMEs) are facing lower profit margins as they have to decline large orders due to the ongoing labour crunch.
SME Association of Malaysia (SME Malaysia) president Ding Hong Sing explained that besides higher production costs arising from pricier raw materials as well as supply chain and logistic issues, companies were now grappling with lower operational capacity.
“SME Malaysia hopes the relevant authorities can simplify the foreign worker application process and expedite approvals to support industry workforce requirements,” he said.
Ding warned that the current shortage of workers would affect productivity and hamper SMEs’ business recovery post-Covid-19.
He was speaking at the launch of Platinum Business Awards (PBA) 2022 at a hotel in Petaling Jaya by Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar.
PBA2022 is a local awards platform that benchmarks the business performance and quality standards of SMEs and individuals in 18 award categories by nomination and four categories by invitation.
Four new categories – SME Environmental, Social and Governance Adoption Award, SME IR 4.0 Adoption Award, SME Business Resilience Award and SME Sustainable Development Goals Excellence Award – have been introduced to highlight the growing relevance of ESG, sustainability and Industrial Revolution 4.0 to SMEs.
Award nominees undergo an assessment process which includes auditor site visits, culminating in the selection of winners by a selection board chaired by KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific president Tan Sri Michael Yeoh, joined by other captains of industry.
PBA2022 is organised by SME Malaysia and audited by SFAI Malaysia, with Fusionex as technology partner and Skynet Worldwide as the official courier.
Major event sponsors are Hong Leong Bank, Boost Biz, Maxis and RHB Bank while co-sponsors are AmLeisure Group, Ipay 88, SBH and RAM.
PBA2022 is open for nominations until Aug 31.
Details are available at https://smemalaysia.org/pba and through the awards secretariat at 03-8024 5787 (Cynthia).
