The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) understands the difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in embracing the Industry 4.0 in the face of challenging economic times.
It has, as such, has been working closely with the SMEs to help them move up their technology adoption towards becoming regional or global champions.
The Industry 4.0, in essence, refers to the trend towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes include internet of things, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
MIDA executive director investment promotion Sivasuriyamoorthy Sundara Raja, said besides the government agency, SMEs, which comprise 98.5 per cent of the country’s businesses, can also engage with IT services providers, system integrators as well as the private sector.
“We acknowledge that currently, most SMEs are either at the level of Industry 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0. We can assist by firstly encouraging them to undertake the National Policy on Industry 4.0 Readiness Assessment or (Industry4WRD-RA),” he told reporters during a half-day seminar here yesterday.
The assessment, launched in October last year, is aimed at driving the digital transformation of the manufacturing and related services sector in the country. An allocation of RM210 million has been put aside to support this assessment programme for the period between 2019 and 2021. – BERNAMA
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