Speaker

YBhg. Datuk Dr Hamzah Kassim

Datuk Dr Hamzah Kassim has a very diverse professional career that spans over 35 years working across global consulting firms and public sector. He is the Co-founder of iA Group an investment  holding company with interest in management and technology consulting ,outsourcing and digital start up. Prior to iA Group he was Executive Director/ Partner of Ernst and Young, Country Head of the global consulting firm of Cap Gemini and managing director of PA Consulting Group. During his many  years in management consulting he had led large scale strategy and transformation assignments in public sector and across multiple industry sectors in Malaysia and Middle East. He is currently Chairman of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, Board Member of Hong Leong Bank,  Advisory Board Member of Malaysia Anti- Corruption Commission, Board of Trustee of MIER  and  Adjunct Professor at the Center of Corporate Strategy University Malaya. He is  member of the Adam Smith Panmure House Society  a socio economic think tank in Edinburgh. Dr Hamzah was member of  the National Economic Advisory Council from 2009 -2011. He also served as Chairman of Heriot Watt University Malaysia, Chairman of Encorp Bnd and board member of University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Prior to joining the consulting industry, he had held various positions in  the government in the field of technology development  and industrial change.

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