More grants for companies to adopt automation
Published on: Friday, August 25, 2017
Kuala Lumpur: More funds and soft loans will be available for local companies to adopt automation for their business operations.However, the willingness among industry players to adopt automation was still low, said Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.He said the loans and funds were important to help companies migrate to automation.
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As at Aug 15, 2017, RM1.5 billion had been channelled to 345 companies to enable them to upgrade their systems."We hope more funds would be allocated to Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) in the upcoming 2018 Budget for the level of automation adoption to increase," Mustapa said.He was speaking to reporters after chairing a dialogue session with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers and Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) here today.Mustapa explained that MIDF had relaxed some of the rules for the loan application, but did not elaborate further.
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"We will also increase the loan limit to RM20 million from RM10 million at present," he said. Under the soft loan scheme for automation and modernisation, the financing amount was between RM50,000 and RM10 million.
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He also noted that another grant, dubbed as market development grant, would be reinstated as it was crucial for preparing and helping the Small and Medium Enterprises for export activities.The application for the grant had been suspended since January this year. Meanwhile, responding to a question on the meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and US President Donald Trump on September 12, he said both nations' economy would certainly be among the topics of discussion between the two leaders."This is also because the US is Malaysia's third largest trading partner as well as the country's largest investor in the electrical and electronics sector," he added.According to Malaysia external trade statistics for June 2017, Malaysia's trade with the US rose by seven per cent to RM7.17 billion while imports, which also improved by 14.3 per cent, stood at RM5.82 billion.Malaysia was among 16 countries, alongside other ASEAN members including Vietnam and Indonesia, which the US president claimed as engaging in unfair trade practices and were responsible for the US trade deficit of nearly US$650 billion.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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