By B. Suresh Ram

PUTRAJAYA: Civil servants should be more creative and innovative in implementing the government's programmes and activities for the people.
They should also be quick in making decisions and policies, and implementing them.

Making the call yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said civil servants should adopt the approach when discharging their responsibilities and executing the four "pillars" of the government's agenda.

These four are the 1Malaysia (People First, Performance Now) concept, the Government Transformation Programme, the New Economic Model to be announced next month and the 10th Malaysia Plan.

"The right mindset, when blended together can result in a successful year for the country," he said.

STANDARD Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd menyasarkan pertumbuhan dua angka dalam segmen pembiayaan perusahaan kecil dan sederhana (PKS) tahun ini, susulan pertumbuhan kukuh dalam sektor PKS tempatan.

Ketua Negara Perbankan Pelanggannya, Tiew Siew Chuen, berkata bank itu mengeluarkan pembiayaan PKS lebih RM1 bilion tahun lalu meskipun berdepan persekitaran kelembapan ekonomi global.

“Dalam tempoh separuh tahun pertama, kami mencatatkan lebih RM500 juta pembiayaan bagi sektor PKS dan tahun ini, kami mensasarkan pertumbuhan dua angka didorong pelancaran produk baru serta pembiayaan yang akan dilaksanakan dengan lebih cekap dan berkesan,” katanya.

Carrefour Malaysia wants to carry more goods made by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at its stores, in line with the government's move in promoting SME products.

Currently, SME products make up 9.2 per cent of its total goods and it plans to raise this to 15 per cent by 2011.

The French retailer now has 20 stores nationwide.

"We have a lot of frozen foods and drinks from the SMEs especially those from the halal industry," marketing and communications director Low Ngai Yuen said after the launch of its 20th store in Kota Damansara in Selangor yesterday.

THE number of new businesses registering in the country increased by 16 per cent last year, despite a contraction in the economy.

However, the number of companies filing for incorporation dropped marginally by 0.05 per cent from 2008.

Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) deputy chief executive (operation) Rokiah Mhd Noor attributed the positive growth in business registration to its stimulus incentives, which was launched in April last year.

The private sector responded well to the incentives, which saw the registration of new businesses rising by almost 400 per cent between April and December last year.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will step up promotion efforts to woo investments from China and India to diversify sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) since funding from traditional sources among the more advanced economies has fallen due to the economic recession.

“As a measure to diversify the sources of FDI, Malaysia is now looking to promote investments from emerging economies such as India and China,” International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said in an email reply to StarBiz.

It enhances the confidence level of users of financial statements

THE attempt by accounting standard setters worldwide to harmonise international accounting and auditing standards on the back of globalisation and the increase in cross-border activities has resulted in the development of complex accounting and auditing standards.

This has created some difficulties for many small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) which did not have much problems interpreting and applying accounting standards in their financial reporting.