This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 4, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The financial sector should be more involved in assisting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in innovation and expansion into the region, says CIMB Group Holdings Bhd chief executive officer and executive director Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

“Of course, the government can play a role, but the financial sector should play a deeper role in assisting them as well,” Zafrul told reporters on the sidelines of the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2017.

He expressed the hope that incentives and policies surrounding innovation and creativity, especially for the SME sector, would be some of the focuses of Budget 2018.

Additionally, he said the people-centric focus of previous budgets should be continued. “Our wish is that [Budget 2018] will be centred on the B40 (bottom 40%) and also the M40 (middle 40%),” he said.

Zafrul added that CIMB is optimistic that the government would be able to achieve its fiscal deficit target of 3% this year on the back of strong economic growth numbers.

“What we’ve seen is that the government has managed to diversify their revenue base, optimise government expenditure, and of course, the goods and services tax has also helped,” he said.

Zafrul pointed out that CIMB’s research team had raised its gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for 2017 to 5.3% following the 5.8% GDP growth recorded in the second quarter of the year.

On another matter, Zafrul said the joint venture between CIMB’s 52%-owned subsidiary Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd and Alibaba Group’s Ant Financial to enable mobile payments via the Alipay application is likely to be launched in the second half of next year.

“The biggest challenge we foresee will be adoption, and whether Malaysians are ready to adopt this technology,” he said.