Easing access into new markets: A CGC customer’s products on display in the Singapore market. There are more than 60 products from 10 customers that have successfully penetrated a halal supermarket in Westgate, Singapore.
FOR many micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), tapping into new opportunities for business growth is often a challenge because of the lack of financial resources and the ability to access new markets.
The Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) Developmental Programme™, a comprehensive programme that provides advisory services for MSMEs, aims to address this obstacle.
Launched in 2016, the CGC Developmental Programme™ marks the start of CGC’s portfolio diversification to enable smaller companies with limited opportunities to enhance their knowledge, skills and capabilities.
It is in line with its financial inclusion agenda, as the agency goes beyond its core products in its role as the sole agency to provide guarantee cover to SMEs.
The programme has benefitted more than 34,000 MSMEs nationwide as of March 2021.
The CGC Developmental Programme™ is a structured advisory programme that takes a step-by-step approach for SMEs to identify their business gaps, improve, scale and thus succeed in their entrepreneurial journey. The programme is exclusively offered to CGC customers who received direct financing from CGC.
Summary of the programme:
This year, the CGC Developmental Programme™ is providing a series of online advisory workshops focused on digitalisation in the three major areas of marketing, branding and e-commerce to boost MSME sales and digital presence.
As for market access initiatives, CGC Developmental Programme™ plays an advisory role to guide MSMEs via suitable intervention programmes. This helps MSMEs expand to new local or international markets, or online and offline market channels.
To determine the readiness and suitability of their products and services, an assessment will be conducted on the MSME prior to enrollment into a specific market or channel.
Those keen to participate in the programme will need to attend an introductory briefing to understand the programme and its offerings, before enrolling into the programme and completing a self-assessment to identify their development needs.
Once completed, the MSME will be able to participate in any of its advisory workshops.
The programme monitors the progress of participating MSMEs over a two-year period, where MSMEs are required to update the CGC team on their development from time to time. The information helps the CGC team to work together with the companies to increase their chances for growth and success at the programme’s conclusion.
As at the first quarter of 2021, the CGC team has completed six engagement sessions via introductory briefings and six advisory workshops.
The CGC Developmental Programme™ has also been working together with industry experts and ecosystem players to avail their respective platforms for MSMEs to sell their products or services.
During Ramadan and Raya, for instance, the CGC Developmental Programme™ upskilled MSMEs through a preparatory course, business planning and platform marketing strategy, in order to help them boost their sales on food delivery service platforms that CGC partnered.
The CGC team’s goal is to assist 500 MSMEs in acquiring digitalisation knowledge through offering a series of advisory workshops and supporting 60 MSMEs’ scale-up with close monitoring over two years.
To know more about the CGC Developmental Programme™, contact CGC at 03-7880 0088, email csc@cgc.com.my or visit https://imsme.com.my/portal/cgc-developmental-programme/.
