KOTA KINABALU: A supply and services outsourcing (SSO) initiative centre is going to be set up at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP).

The SSO centre would function as a venue where Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) in Sabah could showcase their products, Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan told a press conference held at his office yesterday.

He said it would also be equipped with facilities such as refrigeration and storage, among others.

Explaining the SSO initiative, Raymond said it was an aggressive approach adopted by the State Government to help SMEs to grow in Sabah.

He said the SSO was a platform to help SMEs, from the production level right up to the marketing and sale of their products.

It is a capacity building programme that encompasses matters such as exporting, research solutions, packaging and so on, he said.

We provide end-to-end solution, he said.

A press statement issued by the ministry said the number of micro and small enterprises in Sabah has increased over the last five to 10 years.

The sectors that have seen positive growth include the food, non-food and handicraft. Among the reasons for this scenario is the increased awareness of the population in participating in business and the assistance provided by the Federal and State Governments to these enterprises.

In 2015, a total of 162 programmes amounting to RM8.03 billion were implemented by the Federal Government and this year, a total of RM7.56 billion covering 153 programmes is being planned to be implemented to assist SME including micro and small enterprises.

However, these enterprises are facing challenges to move forward their businesses and among the huddles they face are the marketing and promotion of their products.

As a manufacturer of products, they tend to devote their resources to manufacturing their products leaving little time to market their products.

As a result, there is a pull back effect where players tend to hold back on production as they fear that there won’t be sufficient market for their products, resulting in the stunted production capacity of the industry players.

The ministry assists these micro and small entrepreneurs to develop the SMEs further ahead, MID has formulated an initiative to further assist the entrepreneurs in the markets and promotion of their products through the SSO, he said.

Basically, this SSO seeks to provide all or selected value-added services to entrepreneurs manufacturing products such as transport, storage, packaging, distribution, marketing and product promotion.

“The primary objective of this initiative is to provide an effective marketing and promotion service for these entrepreneurs in carrying out these activities so that they can concentrate on the production process, he added.

At the industry level, the objective of this initiative is to further boost the growth and progress of Sabah SMEs by providing a viable range of value-added services to the industry players.

A total of 43 micro and small companies were identified to take part in the SSO briefing yesterday.