The Star Outstanding Business Awards (SOBA) 2016 is now open for submissions.

In its seventh year, SOBA is looking for companies par excellence who are able to inspire and spur the industry to further growth.

“The awards was created not only to recognise and reward companies for their outstanding efforts and achievements but also to help them grow, soar to greater heights and make a name for themselves.

“For some of our winners, these objectives have been met while for others, we will continue with our efforts to support you,” Star Media Group chief executive officer and group managing director Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai said in his speech during the launch of SOBA 2016.

He added that The Star had long supported the growth and development of the country’s businesses through various print pullouts including StarBiz, BizWeek, SMEBiz and MetroBiz.

SOBA is an award that aims at acknowledging local enterprises for excelling in specific functions such as marketing, branding and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to name a few, regardless of the industry they are in.

This year will also be the first that SOBA is further sub-categorised into enterprises with sales turnover of up to or above RM25mil, respectively, to recognise the achievements of upcoming small-medium businesses and start-ups as well as the more established SMEs.

“At its core, SOBA recognises the important role local businesses play toward our nation’s economic development whichever space of the revenue spectrum that they occupy.

“We continue to hope that more enterprises and entrepreneurs will see SOBA as a way to evaluate themselves as well as to benchmark against their competitors and others in similar industries,” Wong said.

Guest of honour International Trade and Industry Minister II Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan lauded potential SOBA participants whom he described as looking to challenge themselves and move beyond their comfort zones.

The awards are divided into two categories, namely Top-of-the-Class comprising Best in Marketing, Best Brand, Best in Corporate Social Responsibility, Best Green Initiative, Best Employer, Best Innovation and Best Global Market as well as the Outstanding Achievement Awards, namely Rising Star, Entrepreneur of the Year (Male/Female/Young) and Malaysian Business of the Year.

SOBA 2016 is organised by The Star with AmBank as the main sponsor.

Event co-sponsors are BMW Malaysia, Credit Guarantee Corporation and Matrade while official venue sponsor is Connexion Conference and Event Centre.

The award is endorsed by the Secretariat for the Advancement of Malaysian Entrepreneurs, supported by Bursa Malaysia and audited by BDO while 988 and Suria FM are the official radio stations.

For details on SOBA, call The Star Events Business Unit at 03-7967 1388 ext 1240 (Melissa) or 1657 (Victor) or visit www.soba.com.my.