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30 SMEs shortlisted for third season of contest

AmBank has announced its selection for the Top 30 SMEs for Digitalisation and Halal Quest.

The 30 companies for each track were chosen from over 2,000 registrations when the third season of the competition was launched in July.

The first session for Digitalisation featured AmBank BizRace’s partners –- Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Microsoft Malaysia and Maxis, all of whom provided an introductory course on digitalisation, including grant application guidelines.

The top 30 SMEs have also attended digitalisation clinics with subject matter experts and are now working closely with technology solution providers to explore the best digital solutions to consider for deployment.

“We congratulate the top 30 businesses in the Digitalisation track for successfully making it to this stage of the competition, ” said AmBank group business banking managing director Christopher Yap.

“The competition is getting tougher now as we continue in our quest to look for a line-up of strong businesses for the next stage of the race, ” he added.

Thirty SMEs have also been selected for the AmBank BizRace Halal Quest track.

They are now undergoing training sessions with Halal Development Corporation (HDC) and will then pitch their respective business ideas to the panel of judges, from which 10 SMEs will be chosen to progress to the next round of their halal certification journey.

The AmBank BizRace season 3 was launched with a series of

webinars covering topics on Industrial Revolution 4.0, Digitalisation and the Halal Sector.

The initiative aims to provide SMEs with guidance on applying for government grant incentives in the areas of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Digitalisation.

The competition also includes the Halal Quest track, which focuses on guiding participating SMEs to obtain halal certification.

This initiative is also part of the bank’s efforts to help SMEs revive their business during the Covid-19 pandemic, by providing a timely programme for them to maximise the help they can receive.

This year’s AmBank BizRace official government partners include International Trade and Industry Ministry, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, HDC, MDEC and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department.

Source: The Star