Branding Innovation Centre

SMECorp Malaysia and Limkokwing University forge partnership to educate rural SME on branding

31 March 2010

Cyberjaya :- Students from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology once again showcased their creativity and innovation spirit when they displayed their product design and packaging ideas at the launch here of the new Branding Innovation Centre(BIC).

BIC is a collaborative effort between Limkokwing University and SME Corp to sensitise the local SMEs about the need to infuse creativity and innovation in their operations in order to enhance the quality of their goods and services, as well as to develop new brands and new markets.

It was launched by the Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed. The ceremony was attended by representatives of a number of local SMEs from various sectors.

The samples of re-designed and re-branded products which were displayed at the BIC were the result of students’ faculty’s course-work.

BIC will be a platform for local SMEs, to tap new innovative brand packaging technologies.

“To remain relevant and competitive, it is critical to enhance the competitiveness of products and services offered, through improved design and branding, as well as to deploy innovative marketing strategies,” said Dato’ Seri Mustapa in his opening speech.

“The Government has also focused on promoting quality brands to build consumer loyalty and rebrand Malaysian products and services in the market,” he added, adding that the pursuit of such quality requires rigorous improvements, particularly in product design, packaging, labeling and marketing.

Dato Seri Mustapa expressed the hope that SME Corp. Malaysia and Limkokwing University, will work together to forge closer ties and establish better cooperation to enhance packaging and branding of Malaysian products in other relevant sectors, besides SMEs.

He said, Limkokwing University over the decade has contributed priceless ideas in developing creativity and innovation in the country, especially in transforming the impossible into the possible.

He added that MITI will seek more effective collaboration with the university.

Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr Lim Kok Wing, President of Limkokwing University, whose speech was read out by University Vice-President Dato’ Nazaruddin Abdul Jalil, said he had been advocating for these measures to assist the SME community over the last decade.

He pointed out that with 78 per cent of Malaysian SME comprising businesses that operate at the micro-level, the chances of failure was very high especially with the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.

“SMEs in Malaysia are mostly domestically oriented. They now face the full brunt of competition with the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.

“The fear is that it will buckle under the pressure of the competition and the community is desperately in need of assistance to re-design, re-engineer and review their operations,” he said.

“The way forward is made easier when Government acts as a partner, more than a facilitator. In this collaboration between SMECorp and the University I see that mindset beginning to take hold,” he added.

The collaboration with SMECorp, he said, was an initiative to reach out and touch the rural sector in tangible ways that is aimed at transforming the mindset of the rural entrepreneurs.

“The training aspect is paramount to the success of this collaboration and it is effected in ways that make it easier for first time entrepreneurs to understand the steps they need to undertake to move their businesses to the next level,” said Tan Sri Lim.

He added that the emphasis on the rural sector is pertinent because “the transformation of Malaysia’s rural heartland is fundamental to the change that must take the nation to higher value-added and higher income economy as desired by the Prime Minister.”

The branding centre would provide a strong platform for SMEs in the country to strengthen, promote and enhance their brand packaging to penetrate the global market.

SME Corp and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Branding Centre will assist SMEs in the country to further generate economic growth, through their products with new designs, new logos and quality packaging.

SMEs constitute 99.2 percent of the total business establishments in the country. They have played a pivotal role in Malaysian economic development.

Its contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 29.4 percent in 2005 to 31.4 percent in 2008.

At the ceremony, a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between SME.Corp Malaysia and Limkokwing University, to work towards further developing SMEs in Malaysia.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak will launch a “Mobile Branding Gallery” in Pekan on April 10 to bridge the rural-urban gap in SME innovation.

The Mobile Branding Gallery will use four buses especially designed by Limkokwing University to visit rural areas throughout the country to sensitise local SMEs on the importance of rebranding products in innovative and creative ways.

Back to Media News ↵