A collaboration between three agencies, namely SME Bank, an agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED), Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (TERAJU) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE); saw 73 companies successfully generated a total of RM141.4 million in export revenue through the Best Exporters Program (BEP).

YB Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof, MED Minister said, “SME Bank's joint efforts together with TERAJU and MATRADE to implement the BEP Program is timely, especially in increasing the SMEs’ contribution towards the country's exports. To further support the success of the BEP and to ensure more entrepreneurs can benefit from this program, the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development will allocate RM5 million for BEP2.0 which will begin in 2020."

Aria Putera Ismail, Group President/Chief Executive Officer SME Bank said, “As a leading Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) serving the SMEs, SME Bank has approved new financing worth RM87.8 million to 13 companies involved in the BEP program. The financing provided was for working capital and purchase of assets.”

Aria added, “From the 73 companies that participated in the BEP, 43 were from the manufacturing sector and 30 were from the services sector. To enhance the capacity and capability of the participants, our subsidiary, Centre for Entrepreneur Development and Research Sdn. Bhd. (CEDAR) also provided suitable capacity building trainings. Apart from CEDAR, INSKEN and COOPMATRADE were also appointed as capacity development service providers for the program.”

Megat Mohd Yatim Megat Hamid, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (TERAJU) said, “In order to provide opportunities for the SMEs, a RM20 million fund has been allocated under the Best Exporters Program (BEP) and each company participating in the program received a grant of RM200,000 to support their export activities. Apart from the BEP, TERAJU has also collaborated with SME Bank through its three previous programs: TERAS Fund, Bumiputera Equity Financing Program (BASE) and Subordinated Financing Program (SFP) to boost the business development growth amongst the Bumiputera companies.”

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE, Sharimahton Mat Saleh said, inter-agency collaboration through programs such as BEP is important to ensure an increase in the export contribution amongst SMEs in Malaysia. "As Malaysia's export promotion agency, MATRADE has channeled market intelligence information on export opportunities for SMEs in the program. In addition, with 46 MATRADE offices in major commercial cities around the world, MATRADE also helps coordinate trade missions for participating companies as well as matching them with importers from all over the continent,” Sharimahton said.

The ceremony was officiated by YB. Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof, Minister of Entrepreneur Development and witnessed by YB. Datuk Wira Dr. Mohd Hatta Ramli, Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development and YBhg. Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Md. Radzi, Secretary General, Ministry of Entrepreneur Development.