Driving SME growth (From left): Nizam Mohamed Nadzri, Vice President, Corporate Services Division, Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd; Rizatuddin Ramli, Director, Global Profiling & Portfolio Management, MDeC; Saifol Shamlan, Vice President, Industry Development Division, MDeC; and Mohamad Yusman Ammeran, GM, Marketing & Solutions, TM SME, join to launch the MSC Malaysia Great ICT Sale, designed as a "stimulus package" to invigorate growth and drive increased usage of technology in the local SME sector.
KUALA LUMPUR, 13 JULY 2009 – Facebook and Twitter would form part of the promotional package for a Malaysian government-backed SME stimulus package—the first MSC Malaysia Great ICT Sale, according to the country's ICT agency, MDeC.
"As part of the government's national ICT Month (NIM), the first-ever MSC [Multimedia Supercorridor] Malaysia ICT solutions sales is now launched," said Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) vice president, industry development division, Saifol Bahri bin Mohamad Shamlan. "To help during the downturn and as an economic stimulus initiative."
"More than 50 local companies are targetted, including local SMEs StarFusion, MYOB, Exabytes, and Mobile88.com," said MDeC director, global profiling and portfolio management, Rizatuddin Ramli.
MSC Malaysia Great ICT Sale 2009’s key events are at KL Convention Centre, 20-21 July, Penang International Sports Arena, 7-9 August, Persada Johor International Convention Centre, 14-16 August, with support from the ministry of science, technology and innovation (MOSTI) and national ICT association (PIKOM).
Facebook and Twitter part of promotion
Bundling of solutions and products will reduce complexity and offer value as well as encourage local ICT adoption," said Rizatuddin, who added that this initiative was not a standard sale event.
"Solution providers would be hosted at MSC Malaysia exhibition area at the three key events," said Rizatuddin. "About 130 qualified leads are expected from the initiative. Amounting to about US$840,000-US$1.4 million (RM3-5 million) in total online and offline sales."
"Telekom Malaysia is powering online business-to-business (B2B) facilities at www.mscmalaysia.my/greatictsale," he said. “Facebook and Twitter are also being used as channels as many SMEs have started to use these social channels.”
He added that SMEs in all sectors need to be made more aware of the business benefits of ICT solutions and break away from old-world processes where appropriate.
Saifol said: “The MSC Malaysia Great ICT Sale provides a two-pronged approach to driving growth in the SME and software market. Firstly, we are providing MSC Malaysia-status SME companies a national platform to trade their products and services. Secondly, we are providing non-ICT-related SMEs the opportunity to leverage on locally-made digital solution bundles for better productivity and efficiency and eventually better bottom line at a very affordable price."
