By Selangor Journal Team
SHAH ALAM, Oct 15 — Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to prepare themselves for the new business challenges after the Covid-10 pandemic.
Selangor Information Technology and e-Commerce Council (Sitec) chief executive Yong Kai Ping said the coronavirus outbreak has tested the SME’s ability to react during an unexpected crisis.
“Digitalisation played an important role in helping SMEs survive in these challenging times while aiding economic recovery efforts.
“But once we come out of this challenging and uncertain time, how will the hard-hit business recover?
“While societies are adapting to the new norm, there is an urgent challenge that we face – to quickly revive the SMEs’ economies and help small businesses in particular, to protect jobs and livelihoods,” said Yong in his welcoming speech at the 5th Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention 2020 held virtually today.
He said SMEs should actively seek new opportunities and participate in business conferences to gain new knowledge to expand as well as survive during testing times.
“The theme of this conference is ‘How SME Can Thrive in the Battle of Digital Transformation?’ can be read as digital is key to SMEs’ survival in times of crisis.
“As we all know, there are two sides to every coin and the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters, one signifying ‘danger’ and the other ‘opportunity’. Uncharted water may pose a risk, but it was Sir Winston Churchill who said: ‘Never waste a good crisis’,” he said.
Yong said realising this Sitec offers SMEs tons of opportunities to gain knowledge, as, since 2016, Sitec has actively promoted smart city and digital economy echoing the Selangor state’s vision of achieving Smart State status by 2025.
Yong said the conference today covered six topics that will address the questions on how the hard-hit SMEs business can recover, which are as follow:
1. The Rise of Digital Payment: Is Cash Still King?
2. O2O Commerce: The next face of Retail
3. How Logistic & Supply Chain embrace Low Touch Economy?
4. Crowd Funding SME: Raise Funds the Smart Way
5. Creating the Next Generation of Tech Talents
6. Digital Marketing Trends post Covid-19
“We are not only struggling against the fluid and sometimes volatile challenges but preparing ourselves for the recovery,” reminded Yong to the participants that watched the virtual conference.
The online convention is one of the three main components of the Virtual Selangor International Business Summit 2020, which runs from October 14 to 17.
