Turkey and Malaysia Empower Their SMEs by Providing Interest-Free Loans and New Tech Center

Istanbul, Turkey | August 15, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

The Turkish business world has welcomed Turkish Minister of Industry and Trade Zafer Çağlayan’s announcement of a plan to grant interest-free loans of up to YTL 25,000 (around 21,000 USD) to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The loans, Çağlayan had said, would be repaid in 18 installments and form a part of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Loan Support Program of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development and Support Administration (KOSGEB).

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Hilmi Develi, chairman of the Turkish Foundation for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (TOSYÖV), said the loans would be a relief in these difficult times, when the manufacturing industry is suffering from high costs and drastically increased electricity prices. “I believe the markets will breathe a sigh of relief thanks to this program, which will benefit around 5,000 enterprises,” he added.

Calling for greater reserves and resources to be allocated to the program so that more SMEs could benefit from it, Develi also noted that his foundation supported the project despite its shortcomings. He added that they saw the decision to grant loans of YTL 30,000 to the enterprises of female entrepreneurs as a positive development.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Association (KOBİDER) Chairman Nurettin Özgenç said SMEs needed such grants, adding that almost all SMEs relied on credit cards when they failed to find loans with appropriate terms. He explained that many SMEs entered a vicious cycle when they were unable to repay their credit card debts. “The interest-free loan to be granted to the SMEs within the support program will be a partial remedy. In other words, it will be of partial help for the SMEs suffering from the inability to pay back their debts,” he said.

Özgenç added that a lack of liquidity on the market would be adequately dealt with provided that non-manufacturing SMEs would also be allowed to benefit from this program.

SMEs hoping to take advantage of these interest-free loans can apply to Ziraat Bankası, Halkbank, Vakıfbank, Türkiye İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi Bankası, Garanti Bankası, Akbank or the Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) starting from Aug. 20. KOSGEB will review the applications. Twenty-five percent (YTL 125 million) of these loans will be set aside for enterprises based in the East and Southeast, 25 percent will go to other underdeveloped areas and the remaining 50 percent will be allocated to developed areas.

Malaysian Cyberview to build new tech centre for SMEs

On the other hand, another D-8 member country, Malaysia, also set to build Centre 3 in its effort to aid small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) to grow. According to the Malaysian media source, following the popularity of SME Technopreneur Centre 1 and 2, Cyberview Sdn Bhd is set to build Centre 3 in its effort to aid SMEs in that southeast asian country.

Cyberview managing director Redza Rafiq said the new centre was estimated to cost RM40mil to RM50mil and would be completed in 18 months. Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop launched Centre 2 and the second exclusive SME showcase in Cyberview yesterday,

Yakcop said Cyberview was mandated by the Government to spearhead the entire development in Cyberjaya, would proceed to build Centre 3 that would house 60 tenants.

Redza said the demand for office space in the SME centres was high, especially newly start-up ventures, as the centres were well-equipped with added-value facilities as well as a knowledge centre, namely Resources Support Service Centre (RSSC). Currently, Centre 1 has a full occupancy of 111 tenants, while Centre 2 is 91% occupied with 70 tenants.
Yesterday also witnessed the exchange of memorandum of understanding documents between Cyberview and the National Library of Malaysia. Through RSSC, SMEs will now have access to the resources and research materials from the National Library.

Meanwhile, Multimedia Development Corp chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said there were about 569 SME companies with MSC Malaysia-status operating in Cyberjaya. Malaysia has a total 2,000 MSC Malaysia-status companies.

He said 181 SME companies in Cyberjaya were operating at Centres 1 and 2.

SME companies with MSC Malaysia-status posted RM6.16bil in revenue and contributed about RM1bil to Malaysian exports last year.

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, cherished this news and said that he consider the news as “very encouraging”, as wish that the D-8 Working Group can immediately discuss the best way to empower those SMEs in each of respective countries, including micro-enterprises. “We promoted this suggestion during the Microcredit summit, last July in Indonesia, and we hope that this sector can be be refined by our working group,” said Dipo Alam at his office on Wednesday.

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