PETALING JAYA: In the first 100 days since taking over as Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, Steven Sim has led multi-billion ringgit initiatives in support of local businesses.
These included new schemes and market expansion efforts, besides funding to boost small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) as well as bumiputra, Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs.
Financing for bumiputra entrepreneurs under Tekun Nasional was raised from RM300mil to RM500mil while allocations for Indian entrepreneurs under the Indian Community Entrepreneur Development Scheme (SPUMI) rose from RM30mil to RM50mil.
Sim, who took over the Cabinet portfolio last December, said in a social media post that for Chinese SMEs, a RM100mil financing scheme was introduced in collaboration with SME Bank and Bank Rakyat.
He said seasonal financing initiatives such as the RM50mil Barakat scheme for bumiputra SMEs during Ramadan and the RM30mil Berkat scheme under SME Corp Malaysia in conjunction with Chinese New Year were also rolled out.
To boost women-owned businesses, the ministry introduced the Women Entrepreneurs Economic Fund with a total allocation of RM3bil to benefit some 300,000 women entrepreneurs nationwide.
Apart from financing, the first three months of Sim’s initiatives also saw efforts to expand market access for local businesses on the global stage.
Further outlining the successes, he said business agreements worth RM2bil were secured through Malaysia’s participation in the Makkah Halal Forum 2026, with RM90mil in sales recorded at the Japan Foodex exhibition.
The cooperative sector also received a major boost with the highest allocation of RM254mil to strengthen the movement, he said, adding that this included plans to transform the Malaysian Skills Certification business school into a platform to nurture business-minded students.
He said digitalisation was also on the ministry’s agenda, including a collaboration with TikTok Shop to empower over 3,000 SMEs, with 700 businesses recording sales exceeding RM28mil.
Sim said the expansion of TikTok Shop Live Hubs to Pahang and Penang was expected to further accelerate online commerce adoption among small businesses.
He said the ministry was also taking efforts to streamline processes and cut down unnecessary interest rates and fees to ease business transaction for traders.
Other initiatives coming up include PowerUp10k to enhance the capacity and capability of 10,000 Malaysian companies.
“My focus is to make Malaysian businesses great. To power up businesses regardless of race or religion. Thank you staff members of the ministry, you delivered,” he said.
