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THE Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (Samenta) has welcomed Malaysia’s improving economic indicators, but urged the government to ensure that the benefits of growth are also meaningfully felt by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In a statement today, Samenta said it supports Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s emphasis on stronger GDP growth, a more stable ringgit, and better global competitiveness rankings — describing these as “positive signs that Malaysia is on a sound economic trajectory”.
However, it stressed that SMEs continue to face long-standing issues, including difficulties in accessing financing, labour shortages, and rising operational costs.
“We call for greater support to help SMEs cope with these cost pressures, particularly through wage subsidies, targeted tax relief, and automation grants,” said Samenta president Datuk William Ng.
While welcoming the expansion of the SARA initiative and the Rahmah sales network, the association urged the government to include traditional retailers and micro-enterprises as vendors in these programmes, to ensure local businesses also benefit from consumer aid.
Samenta also raised concerns over unscheduled public holidays, warning that they can disrupt SME operations.
“Every extra day off translates to real costs for SMEs in terms of productivity, overtime pay, and delivery delays,” Ng said.
The association welcomed the freeze on toll rate hikes and ongoing efforts to ease cost-of-living pressures, calling them “much-needed relief for SMEs grappling with tight margins”.
“As the oldest and largest SME association in the country, Samenta is committed to working with the government to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are inclusive and felt by our SMEs,” Ng said.
Source: https://themalaysianreserve.com/2025/07/23/malaysias-economic-growth-must-lift-smes-too-says-samenta/