Small and medium enterprises and their financing patterns: evidence from Malaysia
The contributions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to socio-economic developments have been long recognized, in developed and developing countries alike. In this relation, a wide range of support programmes have been introduced and implemented in many countries. Malaysia is not exceptional...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC)
2011
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/23265/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/23265/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/23265/1/moha_asri_abdullh.pdf |
| Summary: | The contributions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to socio-economic developments
have been long recognized, in developed and developing countries alike. In this relation, a wide
range of support programmes have been introduced and implemented in many countries.
Malaysia is not exceptional to this as various SMEs-oriented policies and SME support initiatives
have been nationally initiated. Among the most important areas of support extended to SMEs
are financial assistance and credit facilities. Nonetheless, earlier studies indicated that the SMEs’
outreach and accessibility to financial facilities, financing needs and pattern are different than of
their larger firm counterpart. In view of this, this paper attempts to examine SMEs; their
financing pattern and their accessibility to external debt finance based on 124 SMEs surveyed in
Klang Valley, Malaysia. The findings revealed that start up SMEs do not require much external
funding for set up, and besides they are commonly deficient of the means to obtain added funds.
As SMEs grow and expand, the need for additional fund will arise, thus the external financial
needs will start to increase even though the internal funds represent a significant proportion of
their available funds. Among the SMEs that have obtained external finance, the amount and
tenure of the funds tend to be small and short to medium terms respectively. The finding
indicated that the age and assets of SMEs are insignificantly correlated to their accessibility to
finance. Thus, the study concludes that a wide variety of financial facilities provided by various
agencies and financial institutions lead to greater accessibility to finance SMEs in the country. |
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