Statistics

Profile of SMEs in the Manufacturing Sector

Based on Census on Establishments and Enterprise 2005, there are a total of 552,849 companies in operations. Out of this, a total of 548,307 or 99.2 per cent were defined as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The services sector comprise 474,706 (86.6 per cent), followed by 39,376 (7.2 per cent) in the manufacturing sector and 34,225 (6.2%) in the agriculture sector.

Majority of SMEs in the services sector were in retail, accounting for 46.4 per cent of total SMEs followed by restaurants (14.2 per cent), wholesale (9.1 per cent), transport and communication (6.5 per cent) and financial intermediaries (4.1 per cent).

Distribution of SMEs in Services Sector, 2005

Source : Census on Establishments and Enterprises 2005,Department of Statistic, Malaysia

Note :
1. Selected services include rental services, advertising, research and development, business activities (labour recruitment, building cleaning, packaging services, and duplication services), recreation, cultural and sporting activities (motion picture projection, recreation clubs)

2. Health include hospital, medical, dental and veterinary services, herbalist, homeopathy and foot reflexology.

In the manufacturing sector, textiles and apparels was the largest sub-sector at 23.4 per cent, followed by food and beverages (15.0 per cent), metal and metal products (13.0 per cent), and paper and recorded media (7.2 per cent).

Distribution of SMEs in Manufacturing Sector, 2005

Source : Census of Establishments and Enterprises 2005, Department of Statistic, Malaysia

SMEs in the primary agriculture are mainly in planting, market plantation and horticulture, accounting for 65.6 per cent followed by fisheries at 20.8 per cent and poultry farming (7.0 percent).

Distribution of SMEs in Agriculture Sector

Contribution of SMEs to the Economy

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represents the largest percentage of establishments in Malaysia at 99.2 per cent. In terms of its' economic contribution, SMEs contributes 32 per cent to Gross Domestic Products, 56.4 per cent to total work force and 19 per cent to total exports.

Contribution of SMEs to Gross Domestic Product,
Employment and Export by Sector