JOHOR BARU: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) wants to attract and encourage more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use information and communication technology (ICT) solutions to expand their business operations and activities.

TM Consumer and SME executive vice-president Imri Mokhtar said that there were still thousands of local SMEs that did not fully utilise ICT solutions and they offered good opportunities for the company.

He said there were about 700,000 SMEs nationwide presently but only 30% of them had fully utilised ICT solutions in day-to-day operations while the remaining 70% still preferred to do businesses the old ways or the conventional methods.

“Local SMEs and SoHos (small office home office) need to start changing their mindset or else their businesses would not be able to compete with their competitors not only in Malaysia but also from other countries,’’ said Imri, who added that there were no officialsfigures on SoHos in the country.

He said this in the fifth leg of its annual SME event - SME BizFest 2016 held at Persada Johor International Convention Centre here yesterday.

Imri said that the company would engage with the SMEs which still did not embrace ICT solutions in their business operations on ICT-related services offered by TM which they could use to further build and develop their businesses.

“They (SMEs and SoHos) should change their perception or fear that investing in technology will eat into their operating cost,’’ he said, adding that they should look at the long-term benefits of using ICT solutions.