Khairussaleh (middle) speaking to Mohd Redzuan at The Future SME Conference 2019 in Kuala Lumpur. Looking on is RHB Business and Transaction Banking Group head Jeffrey Ng (left).
RHB Bank Bhd (RHB) in partnership with SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) and the Entrepreneur Development Ministry organised The Future SME Conference 2019 themed “Engineering The Future” to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) embrace technology and innovation.
The conference aimed at providing insight into techniques and solutions to accelerate growth of SMEs for them to remain relevant and competitive.
RHB was among industry experts sharing insights on future business trends, innovations, technologies, strategies and best practices in the digital age of Industry 4.0.
RHB Banking group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said in the rapidly evolving marketplace, there was a need for back-end high productivity enhancing digital tools to boost productivity and business performance for SMEs.
“A lot of this is driven by misconception among SMEs that costs are high and that they lack sufficient funds, knowledge and workforce talent to adopt new technologies and innovation.
“However, they are not fully aware that there are funding options available from the government, industry bodies and financial institutions, among others.”
He stressed on the need for SMEs to accelerate the adoption of information and communications technology to increase productivity of their workforce and expand market reach.
“It is essential for SMEs to leverage technological advancement to achieve business growth and remain competitive,” he added.
“RHB will continue to play an active role in the digitalisation journey of Malaysian SMEs.
“Our ever-evolving RHB SME e-Solutions, which forms part of RHB’s SME connected banking ecosystem, complements our extensive experience in supporting the growth of SMEs in Malaysia. It helps business owners increase efficiency by seamlessly embedding everyday business solutions into their day-to-day business operations.”
The RHB SME e-Solutions platform is part of RHB’s “Beyond Banking” road map where the bank assists SMEs in increasing efficiency by leveraging upon various integrated business solutions and tools such as accounting software, point-of-sales, HR solutions, and inventory management solutions.
In leading the digitalisation space, RHB continues to focus on customer journey with innovative first-in-market digital solutions which includes the RHB iSMART Digital RM (relationship manager) tool for SME customer advisory, RHB SME Financing online for end-to-end digital SME Financing origination, and most recently in May, it launched the API Enable SME Ecosystem to facilitate API integration with business solution partner Financio.
Recognising the importance of SMEs in growth of the Malaysian economy, RHB targets to grant more than RM31 billion in new and additional financing, up to 2021.
In the first half of 2019, RHB approved loans amounting to RM5.2 billion for approximately 2,000 SMEs with an approval rate of 82%.
The collaboration with SME Corp is part of RHB’s continuous efforts towards enhancing capabilities and competitiveness of SMEs, with the 500 businesses present at the conference held earlier this month.
The event was launched by Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof.
