Since the opening of its first office in Malaysia, its safe to say that Facebook has taken strides in making their presence felt in country. From the launch of the Made By Malaysia, Loved By The World program last year to the opening of their brand new office in the heart of KL, the social media company want is going BIG in Malaysia.

What better way to do that than to help local businesses thrive. That’s exactly what the Made By Malaysia, Loved By The World program is all about. Recognizing that SMEs make up for a large chunk of business entities in the country, Facebook wants to assist SMEs assume a greater role not only as an enabler but also as a key driver for growth in the nation.

There’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to Unlocking the full potential of SMEs and Facebook knows that. In collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Bank, Facebook developed the Future of Business Survey that highlighted just how important social media is for SMEs.

The insights from the survey has helped Facebook identify how exactly it can help Malaysian SMEs boost their business reach and goals, especially in the export market.

Made By Malaysia, Loved By The World aims to facilitate business exports for at least 2000 businesses in the country. Under the partnership, SMEs can learn skills in market research, digital marketing, and building their e-commerce presence via training programs by Facebook as a way to utilise the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) in each business sector.

Since it has first launched in 2018, the program has achieved the following milestones:

• Trained more than 1000 SMEs through  in-person trainings across 7 cities
• Created Malaysia specific microsite which housed resources for  Malaysian SMEs, including free Facebook tools such as Cross Border Insights Finder and short e-learning modules via Facebook Blueprint.

Present at the launch of the second phase was  Tengku Elona, founder of Oleh Elona, a natural homemade solution for eczema prone and sensitive skin and Rose Nizeana, the person behind Auntie TIM, a delicious gourmet sambal. The both of them represent two success stories out of the many in the year since the programs inception.

The program will enter its second phase in September and will introduce a new partner to the program, DHL express, who’s global expertise and insights would complement the program by helping SMEs navigate the complexities of international trade.