KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 4): AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank) has selected Top 100 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which have made it through the digitalisation track as finalists for its third season of AmBank BizRACE contest.

According to the group, finalists for the third season of AmBank BizRACE — which was launched in July — were gathered for a virtual development session on Nov 5.

Participants will soon be going through their first round of pitching sessions where 30 of them will be further shortlisted to advance to the next round of the competition, it added.

"We would like to congratulate the Top 100 businesses in the Digitalisation track for successfully making it to this stage of the competition," said AmBank managing director of business banking group Christopher Yap in a statement.

He added that over the past two years, AmBank BizRACE has been committed to helping SMEs by offering a suite of knowledge, networking and media support to enterprises keen to take their businesses to the next level.

AmBank BizRACE Season 3 — which started from September to March next year — aims to help SMEs future-proof their businesses in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

AmBank BizRACE's partners for the session featured Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC), Microsoft Malaysia and Maxis — all of whom provided an introductory course on digitalisation, including grant application guidelines.

The contest was launched with a series of webinar sessions covering topics on Industrial Revolution 4.0, Digitalisation and the Halal Sector, which aims to provide SMEs with guidance on applying for various grant incentives offered by the government's Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Digitalisation areas.

Furthermore, it also includes the Halal Quest track, which focuses on guiding participating SMEs to obtain halal certification.

This initiative is also part of AmBank's efforts to help SMEs revive their businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, by providing a timely programme for SMEs to maximise the help they are able to receive.

AmBank is partnering key government agencies to support SMEs by incorporating some of their grant and certification programmes into the competition. The agencies include the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp, Halal Development Corporation, MDEC and Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia.

Its official corporate partners include Microsoft Malaysia, Maxis and Bosch Rexroth.

Besides, the banking group has also engaged with PwC Malaysia to work on the evaluation process of the competition.

The Edge is a media partner of the AmBank BizRACE 3.