Hard work paid off for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a grand manner at the Platinum Business Awards 2018 Presentation and Gala Night organised by SME Association of Malaysia at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre in Selangor recently.

Now in its 17th consecutive year, the awards programme is noted for its stringent selection process.

Carrying the tagline “Legacy and Integrity”, the award has garnered a strong following among SMEs and the business community alike.

With this year’s theme of “Local Innovation, Global Recognition”, it expressed the idea of exporting local creations and aimed to inspire a larger number of SMEs to export goods and services out of Malaysia.

Among the guests of honour at the event were Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof with SME Association of Malaysia national president Datuk Michael Kang Hua Keong and Platinum Business Awards 2018 organising chairman Chey Onn Wah.

Over 1,400 guests from the business sector, government agencies, major chambers of commerce, trade associations and foreign embassies attended the event as well. 

At the event, Mohd Redzuan expressed his gratitude to the organiser and spoke about current entrepreneurial developments in Malaysia.

“But there is still room for improvement. With the newly announced National Entrepreneurship Framework (NEF), it contains key targets set by the ministry in order to set the direction of the development of a cohesive, conducive and integrated entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country.

“From this framework, there are six specific outcomes we wish to pursue, which is to boost SME contribution to the GDP to 41% by 2020, create one million jobs in the next five years, produce 50,000 entrepreneurs to generate 200,000 jobs a year, train 50,000 graduates a year in entrepreneurship, place SME export contributions at 23% by 2020 and generate a RM50bil turnover for co-operatives by 2020,” he added.

In his speech, Kang appealed to SMEs in the audience to contribute productively towards nation building.

“The SME Association of Malaysia has also developed a three-year plan incorporating six major transformation directions for the association to stay relevant to the needs of its target beneficiaries, in view of the fourth industrial revolution and calls to boost SME exports,” he said.

Pewter trophies and certificates were awarded to 89 award recipients, including one from Indonesia, under 17 categories by nomination.

Nominees were judged based on five core evaluation criteria – business; company philosophies; products, services and markets; operations and technologies; and financial performance, with results independently audited by Kreston John & Gan.

Some of the night’s big winners were EXSIM Group, Fusionex International and Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd who received the Outstanding Achievers Award, while PT. Elabram Systems of Indonesia took home the Asean Enterprise Award.

Besides that, Builtech Project Management Sdn Bhd, Brickfields Asia College Sdn Bhd, and Miaow Miaow Food Products Sdn Bhd were winners in the SME Best Overall Award category.

Additionally, the SME Internet-of-Things Award, which was

first introduced in 2017, was presented to Gintell Malaysia Sdn Bhd this year, showing signs of SMEs catching up with the digital trend.