Kota Kinabalu, 21 August 2015: Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) contributed RM100,000 in support of the Ranau District Natural Disaster Committee’s fund raising initiative to help ease the financial burden of the Ranau community affected by the recent earthquake.

CGC’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak presented the cheque to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, YB Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.

“We at CGC are concerned about the effects of the earthquake on the families and individuals. Our prayers and thoughts are with the Ranau community,” said Zamree.

“It is our duty to reach out and extend a helping hand to the Ranau community. We sincerely hope this contribution we have made today will help to relieve, rebuild and bring normalcy to their lives as soon as possible,” added Zamree.

“Besides this contribution to Ranau community, we will also be organising specific CSR programmes in Sabah and Sarawak in conjunction with the Malaysia Day on 16 September,” said Zamree.

CGC has actively engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to reach out to a wide cross section of the Malaysian society through a variety of programmes. It had organised and sponsored charity programmes in conjunction with major festivals.

CGC, being a major developmental financial institution in the country, has been in the forefront of SME financing since 1972. It has contributed to the country’s economic development by being an effective financial intermediary supporting potentially viable SMEs that lack collateral and track record to gain access to financing.

“We offer a range of innovative products to support the SMEs including the new business segments such as the start-ups as part of our efforts to promote SME development in the country,” added Zamree.

“The BizMula-i financing scheme for the start-ups which was launched in May 2014, has benefitted hundreds of SMEs. The start-up businesses with less than three (3) years in operations, no collateral and track record, are now able to obtain financing as high as RM300,000 under this scheme,” said Zamree.

He added that CGC had allocated RM4.96 million under its BizMula-i financing scheme to support the start-ups in Sabah in 2015. As at July 2015, a total of 31 applications from the start-ups in Sabah valued at RM1.6 million has been approved. Overall, CGC has approved 589 applications valued at RM48 million under the BizMula-i scheme.

CGC also offers Tabung Projek Usahawan Bumiputera-i (TPUB-i) which is a contract financing scheme to cater to Bumiputera SMEs that have been awarded contracts by Government-linked companies and agencies.

“We see strong potential in further growing this segment in Sabah and have therefore allocated RM22.85 million for Bumiputera SMEs. This is in line with the growth in Government developmental projects for the state,” added Zamree.

“We are targeting to provide a total of RM61 million of financing for SMEs in Sabah, a 52.5% increase compared to the previous year,” he added.

In 2014, CGC has provided RM40 million of financing to about 140 SMEs in Sabah largely in the wholesale, construction and real estate sectors through its two (2) branches in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. CGC is looking forward to do more to contribute towards the growth of SMEs in Sabah.

In 2015, CGC targets to provide RM3.0 billion of financing to 7,855 SMEs and to date, it has approved 3,100 applications valued at RM2.2 billion. “We are optimistic of not only meeting but also exceeding our target by 10 % by year end,” said Zamree.