Speaker

Rizal Nainy

Chief Executive Officer, SME Corporation Malaysia

Rizal is currently the Chief Executive Officer for SME Corporation Malaysia, a Government Agency that is mandated to spearhead the development of small and medium enterprises, implement and monitor strategic SME programmes, coordinate SME programmes for Ministries and Agencies as well as being the Secretariat to National Entrepreneurship & SME Development Council (NESDC) chaired by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Rizal graduated from Imperial College, University of London in Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honours, and then obtained the Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Charles Sturt University, Australia.

One of his primary responsibilities is to plan, implement, monitor and value-add strategic SME development programmes aligning with the 12th Malaysian Plan, National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 and Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, which will ultimately increase Malaysia’s GDP, exports and job creation. Collaborating with Ministries, agencies and strategic partners is one of his key tasks especially in the area of facilitating and developing SMEs. By reviewing and evaluating value-added initiatives, he will make sure more innovative and high growth SMEs will be formed especially under key programmes such as Programme for Enhancement of Strategic Industry and High Growth Enterprise (PRESTIGE), Inclusive Innovation, 1Innocert and National Mark of Malaysian Brand Certification programmes. Rizal has vast experience in business development, entrepreneurship, business advisory, economics and policy, international cooperation, coordination of SME programmes, 4th Industry Revolution, SME digitalisation and e-Commerce.

Prior to joining SME Corporation Malaysia, Rizal has six years of strategic transformation experience under the Prime Minister’s Department to strategise and drive the National as well as State Government and Economic transformation programmes. He was assigned to several high profile projects such as Electrical & Electronics key economic area (particularly in LED, Semiconductor, Solar and Industrial Electronics), Innovation, Nanotechnology, Electric Vehicles, Rail, Smart Grid as well as carrying out Programme Management and Business Re-Engineering. He helped to catalyse the transformation of Malaysia’s economy especially Electrical & Electronics being the leading export sub-sector by working closely with relevant stakeholders, developing the SMEs and setting precedents for economic efficiencies.

He has also 16 years of varied experience with Shell Company locally and globally, and held various positions in Strategy & Portfolio, Business Development, Sales & Operations, Network Planning, Project Management, Engineering, HSSE and Internal Audit within Shell Malaysia as well as Shell Asia Pacific. His professional expertise includes Oil & Gas Downstream Retail Business.

He has built strong professional networking with Ministries and Agencies, MNCs, GLCs as well as NGOs in assisting and developing the SMEs especially in the areas of Industry Revolution 4.0 and Digitalisation of SMEs in charting and aligning them towards the Megatrends.

Specialties:
Government Relations, Transformation & Business Re-Engineering, Electrical & Electronics, Innovation (developing high growth and innovative SMEs), Strategic Planning, Business Development, Strategy & Portfolio of Oil & Gas Retail Business, Sales & Operations of Oil & Gas Retail Business, Programme Management, Performance Management, Project Management and Audit Management.

AllSessions

Day 1
October 20, 2021
11:30 am

Concurrent Session B: “Are We There Yet? Future-Proofing Malaysian SMEs”

20 October
Time:  11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Location: 

In Malaysia, 98.5% of business establishments are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that contribute almost 40% to the country’s GDP and employ more than 7 million workers*. According to the World Bank, Malaysia’s SMEs have been underperforming in comparison to peer countries in terms of output and productivity, even before the pandemic. Most notably, digital adoption among SMEs lag far behind with only one in three businesses implementing digital transformation strategies. The pandemic not only adversely impacted SMEs, it also highlighted the lack of readiness of many SMEs, especially micro-businesses, to shift to an online environment.

How can SMEs scale up their digitisation efforts, and what role can ministries and agencies like MITI, MEDAC, MDeC, and SME Corp play to future-proof the backbone of our economy, the SMEs? This session will explore this and other issues affecting the digitalisation efforts of SMEs with a view towards ensuring higher resilience against future shocks.
*Department of Statistics Malaysia