KUALA LUMPUR 20th January 2020 – Today, the Seminar on Industry4WRD Incentives at MITI Tower which it’s objective is to increase industry’s awareness on the Industry4WRD related programmes and incentives by the Government was held at MITI Tower. It was officiated by the Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, YB Dr. Ong Kian Ming.
The seminar which was attended by 420 industry players, was also held to kick-start the Nationwide Industry4WRD Outreach Programme in 2020. The outreach programme will be conducted in 2 phases across the nation where the first phase is scheduled from February to April 2020. As an avenue for industry players to understand the Industry4WRD related programmes and incentives, the Programme will be held in collaboration with relevant Ministries, Agencies and business associations.
“In 2019, MITI received 849 applications for the Industry4WRD Readiness Assessment (RA). Of those, 508 SMEs have been selected for the Government-funded RA and at the end of 2019, a total of 150 SMEs have undergone the on-site RA. 64 reports have been endorsed by the Technical Committee.
Currently, there are three appointed Assessing Bodies i.e. SIRIM, MARii and MIMOS, undertaking the Assessments. These three ABs have a total of 78 trained assessors. We are working with MOF to appoint another 4 ABs to cope with the workload in 2020.” said Dr. Ong in his speech.
Dr Ong also added that 28 companies have registered their interest to apply for a matching grant of 70:30 under the Industry 4WRD Intervention Fund with MIDA. The fund is capped at RM500K per company.
“This year, a total of RM43 million has been allocated for Industry4WRD. Of this, the focus will still be on Readiness Assessment (RA) and its Intervention Programme as well as on talent development.
RA programme must be accelerated to determine the level or readiness of those selected SMEs and to come up with the most appropriate intervention programme to bring them up to speed with the rest. Our target is 450 SMEs for RA with at least 65 on the Intervention program.
We will also roll out a new type of assessment this quarter – the Readiness Assessment for companies providing manufacturing related services (MRS). MRS-type companies looking to adapt to i4.0 manufacturing can undergo this assessment to identify a direction for investing to develop their i4.0 capabilities.” said Dr. Ong.
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