MESSAGE FROM THE GUEST OF HONOUR

YB FAHMI FADZIL Minister of Communications and Digital of Malaysia

Salam Perpaduan.

A big congratulations to the nominees and awardees of the SME and Entrepreneurs Business Awards 2022: Central Grand!

An immense tribute done for Malaysia is celebrated here with much grace and support moving forward. It is a great honour for me to celebrate your successes together. It is time we recognise your efforts whilst acknowledging the impact you bring to the community beyond businesses and Malaysia’s economy.

I applaud Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia for your never-ending efforts to support this initiative, working hard with a positive end goal. Thank you for hosting SEBA to bring recognition to top entrepreneurs in Malaysia and motivate others to follow in the footsteps of these exemplary industry players.

SMEs are the bedrock of Malaysia’s economic growth, and the support of digital advancement is crucial for many SMEs to spread their wings. We see the importance of business digitalisation during the pandemic. More than ever, the government remains responsive and committed to emphasising the need for digital support for SMEs in weathering the post-pandemic impact. More initiatives through various collaborations are priorities. Efforts will be aimed at promoting technology adoption, 5G implementation, and digital innovation development to transform SMEs into regional pioneers.

I applaud SEBA’s collaboration with Maxis on the Maxis Awards, which emphasises driving digital entrepreneurship and positioning Malaysia as a Digital Entrepreneurs Hub. Well done.

Creativity is in every entrepreneur’s DNA, which is the secret to building successful businesses through different solutions. The Ministry of Communications and Digital looks forward to providing SMEs with digitalisation and creativity support through various channels.

You have demonstrated that you can serve as a model for encouraging business and entrepreneurship. With the SME businesses and entrepreneurs’ contribution, we will prosper into a higher level of success and bring Malaysia’s name into the big leagues. Here’s to becoming future leaders and upholding our accomplishments proudly.

Congratulations to the nominees and awardees of the SME and Entrepreneurs Business Awards 2022: The Central Grand. I am delighted to join you today, in celebrating the outstanding achievements of your hard work. You have accomplished success in your respective fields and made an impact on our enterprise landscape, as well as contributed positive change to society and the community. My congratulations also to Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia for this admirable initiative to support and inspire entrepreneur development.

The Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (MECD) was established with the mission of creating a holistic and conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem to support Malaysia’s inclusive, sustainable, knowledge and innovationdriven entrepreneurship agenda. Thus, MECD is committed to working closely with entrepreneurs in promoting the development of an enabling environment for our micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to grow and prosper. We will continue our efforts to further promote technology adoption, talent upskilling, research and development (R&D), and innovation towards transforming MSMEs into producing high-valueadded products and services, expanding global markets, and attracting quality investments.

We should also strive to further promote SEBA onto bigger and wider networks, which can lead to meaningful connections and more collaborative learning experiences among entrepreneurs. With intelligent networking, I am confident that entrepreneurs will be able to collaborate with other experts to help them further exploit the full potential of their businesses.

General, Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development