KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 – SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp. Malaysia) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) jointly organise the Technical Cooperation Seminar on Human Resource Development for SME Counseling. The objective of the Seminar held today is to share knowledge and experience with other ASEAN countries in the implementation and development of the SME Counseling Project.

The SME Counseling Project started in 2004, when SMIDEC (now SME Corp. Malaysia) in collaboration with JICA and the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of Malaysia initiated the Technical Cooperation Project on Development of Human Resource for Small and Medium Industries. The 3-year project was an initiative under the Malaysia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (MJEPA) aimed at upgrading and strengthening the competency of officers from SMIDEC, MATRADE, MPC, PSMB and SME Bank to become SME Business Counsellors.

“This Project is emulated from the successful Shindan-Shi system in Japan, where consultants or specialists diagnose and give advice to SMEs concerning various management issues,” said Dato’ Hafsah Hafsah Hashim, Chief Executive Officer of SME Corp. Malaysia in her welcoming remarks at the Seminar.

The Project concluded in 2009 with the graduation of 67 SME Business Counsellors from all the organisations. Upon completion of the project, the SME Business Counsellors were expected to put into practice the knowledge they had gained from the project.

“I am proud to say that I have received positive feedback from SMEs that have been given advisory services by our SME Business Counsellors,” added Dato’ Hafsah.

In ensuring the sustainability of the Project, JICA has agreed to continue with Phase 2 of the Project which is Training-of-Trainers (TOT), in line with the recommendation from the first phase of the project where the SME Counsellors need to undergo an advanced training programme.

“The overall goal of this project is to offer SMEs in Malaysia an effective and fine-tuned support and advisory service, through the strengthening of institutional capacity and developing the human resources capability of SME Corp. Malaysia,” said Ms. Noriko Suzuki, the Chief Representative of JICA Malaysia Office.

Under this 3-year programme, the best 30 participants from Phase 1 will further undergo an in-depth training under the Japanese industrial experts to become trainers, where they will be expected to further train another 120 new SME Business Counsellors.

Dato’ Hafsah said “the second phase of this Programme could not have been more apt as SME Corp Malaysia assumes the role of the ‘Central Coordinating Agency’, and ‘One Referral Centre’ for the development of SMEs”. SME Corp. Malaysia will continue to render its service to provide effective and efficient business and technical advisory to SMEs across all sectors of the economy.

To date, 10 officials from SME Corp. Malaysia have already commenced training since 1 March 2010 and are expected to depart for Japan on 14 March for 2 weeks for further exposure on the management and operational aspects of SMEs in Japan.

Ms. Noriko said “The invited ASEAN countries today are developing their human resources for SME counseling services with cooperation of JICA Through exchanging of experiences as well as lessons learnt including failures and success, which benefit all participants by way of comparing their own challenges and creating innovative solutions”.