SME Bank, a leading Development Financial Institutions (DFI) in the SME sectors and an agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED), continues its effort to nurture and develop young entrepreneurs that are digital savvy by introducing the digital marketing elements in the 7^th edition of the SME Bank Y-Biz Challenge for year 2020.

Group President/Chief Executive Officer SME Bank, Aria Putera Ismail said, “This SME Bank’s signature corporate responsibility program was first introduced in 2012 and has successfully achieved its objective. There are schools or students who had participated in the competition and are still selling their products up to the international level and to date, the estimated total cumulative sales is exceeding RM500,000.00."

“The format of the 7th edition of the SME Bank Y-Biz Challenge has been improved through the emphasis on digital elements from the registration stage until product marketing. With these improvements, participants will be exposed and required to use digital marketing elements in their business processes. The competition have also been updated with the addition of e-commerce and digital marketing modules and knowledge sharing session by successful e-entrepreneurs,” added Aria.

Aria said, “In addition, 10 groups that qualify for the final round also need to provide two videos that will be uploaded to SME Bank’s Youtube and Facebook page to promote their products and share the progress of their business. This is an initiative to expose the participants on the importance of using social media as a platform to market their products and services.”

The SME Bank Y-Biz Challenge offers a total prize of RM91,000 including flight tickets worth RM25,000 for the Champions to enable them to compete in any international competitions.

The objective of SME Bank Y-Biz Challenge is in line with the goals of the National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (DKN 2030) which aims to make Malaysia an entrepreneurial country by 2030. The competition which involves secondary school students across Malaysia, gives the opportunity for them to explore their potentials in entrepreneurship. This initiative will indirectly spark interest and guide them to become the next generation of digital savvy young entrepreneur.

The preliminary registration session is already opened on 12 December 2019 and schools interested to participate in the competition can register and upload the project proposal on SME Bank’s website: www.smebank.com.my, before or on 3 April 2020. To encourage more schools to register and benefit from this program, 100 participants who sign up before 31 December 2019 will be invited to attend a special briefing session that will be held in January 2020. This session will assist them to prepare a viable and quality project proposal paper.

The SME Bank Y-Biz Challenge has also received an international recognition which is the Plaque of Merit for the Corporate Social Responsibility Program category from the Association of Development Financing Institution in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) in 2014.