KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- The Entrepreneur Development Ministry will focus on eight key industries with the biggest potential to drive the economy as these industries have the highest value-added multiplier and high backward linkages.

The industries include rubber plantation, livestock, grain mills manufacturing, oil and fats manufacturing, private education and private health, said Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli.

"These industries have a high spillover effect and are capable of positively affecting other related small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the supply chain," he told reporters after launching the “SME Input-Output (SME IO) Table” here today.

He said higher investments, exports and demand for these industries would likely benefit the local economy as a whole.

Mohd Hatta said the focus sectors are part of the findings from SME Corporation’s study SME IO, which was conducted with researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia.

The SME IO study, which can describe the flows of SMEs and large firms' products and services in the economy, is conducted every five years involving one million companies registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.

"The study also confirmed that at present, there is a weak linkage between SMEs and large firms as SMEs are more dependent on large firms in acquiring inputs, compared with large firms which prefer to buy from larger firms or through import.

"We will identify the weaknesses of each industry and will work to overcome them to ensure SMEs achieve the target of 41 per cent contribution to gross domestic product by 2020," he said.

-- BERNAMA