KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): The government will intensify its efforts to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially small business owners, by implementing income-raising and capacity-building programmes in urban and rural areas.

Minister in the Prime Minister Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), the government will assist the target group by encouraging entrepreneurship and access to financing facilities.

“In the context of building back better, the 12MP aims to ensure that we can achieve high-income status by 2025. At the same time, we have to be more sustainable in order to ensure that we can become a carbon-neutral country at the earliest in 2050.

“The plan will also provide more balanced development across regions and states to ensure that the fruits of development are equally shared by our citizens,” he said in his pre-recorded keynote address at the virtual Perdana Leadership Foundation CEO Forum 2021 on Wednesday.

Concurrently, he said, the government will further enhance access to education, healthcare and housing, and improve the quality of life for the urban poor, especially in the People's Housing Projects (PPRs).

“The government’s priorities in the next five years include increasing incomes, eliminating absolute poverty and reducing development gaps between states and regions as well as ensuring quality growth that is sustainable.

“Like the five-year plans that came before, the 12MP provides an overarching trajectory of the government’s development agenda. It provides guidance to government agencies, the private sector, investors and the public at large on the overall policy direction of the government,” he said.

The two-day forum beginning from Wednesday brings together business leaders and industry experts to address these concerns as well as to provide insights and opinions on the theme of “Business in the New Normal”.

With more than 10 plenary, concurrent and keynote sessions, the forum promises to be a lively platform for idea exchange and networking.

The topics discussed at the forum are wide-ranging — from the macro perspective in the plenary to industry specifics in the concurrent sessions.

The sessions will cover travel and tourism, SME digitalisation, retail-sector challenges as well as employment issues, including a session on the impact of youths on business and politics.