SMEs' Strong 2025 Performance Reflects Resilience Amid Global Uncertainties - SAMENTA
KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- The positive performance of Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2025 demonstrated the incredible resilience and agility of businesses despite persistent global supply chain disruptions and shifting trade dynamics.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (SAMENTA) national president Datuk William Ng said the local SMEs have continued to invest, innovate and expand their reach into regional and international markets, and as a result, SME exports surged 10.5 per cent to RM214.5 billion.
“To sustain this momentum and reach our national target of a 40 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) contribution, we must ensure that unnecessary regulatory hurdles do not bog down our SMEs.
“While we cannot control external factors such as energy costs and geopolitics, the government can and must double down on regulatory reform to reduce compliance costs,” he said in a statement.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), MSMEs achieved a 5.7 per cent GDP growth in 2025, outpacing the broader national economy’s 5.2 per cent growth over the same period.
Ng said that with value-added output reaching RM689.8 billion and contributing 39.7 per cent to Malaysia’s total GDP, these figures confirm once again that SMEs are the undisputed engine of the country’s economic growth.
Nearly one out of two working Malaysians are now employed by an SME, with labour productivity per employee rising 4.1 per cent to RM85,299, reflecting real, ongoing efforts by SMEs to adopt digitalisation, automation and AI tools, he said.
Meanwhile, Ng suggested that the government should focus on policies to shift from blanket grants to productivity linked incentives, particularly supporting AI adoption, digital integration and automation to offset rising labour costs.
“Furthermore, the nationwide roll-out of initiatives such as Akta Iltizam, Bureaucratic Red-tape Reform and Good Regulatory Practice must be accelerated. Ultimately, the public sector must view the private sector as equal partners in nation building,” he added.
SAMENTA remains committed to working with the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry and various government agencies to build stronger capability for SMEs and scale sustainably into regional champions.
-- BERNAMA