ITLED ASEAN SMES : Small

Business , Big Opportunity for Tech Providers , the report aims to help tech providers globally understand the approach that ASEAN SMEs are taking to grow their business in the digital economy and their expectations of tech providers .

There are more than 70 million SMEs across ASEAN which make up about 97 % of all businesses in the region . ASEAN SMEs have signaled their strong commitment to digitalising through their investments . Over the last three years , they have invested more than US $ 78 billion on such initiatives and do not plan to slow down , with a further US $ 130 billion planned for investment over the next three years .

The study revealed that close to half ( 49 %) have only digitalised a few functions across their business . On average , ASEAN SMEs are currently using three tech solutions to support their business needs , with digital marketing being the top area of focus .

While the pandemic has expedited the speed of digitalisation among ASEAN SMEs , the rate of advancement is uneven across the region . One-fifth ( 20 %) of the region ’ s SMEs only took the plunge to digitalise in the last two years and those in the consumer goods , retail and food & beverage sectors lag behind their peers in their digitalisation journey .

ASEAN SMEs , however , are taking steps to bridge their digitalisation gap . The study found that their top priority over the next two years is to enhance their data analytics and innovation capabilities . To support their digitalisation push , SMEs are looking to work with tech providers that have strong technical skills ( 76 %), industry knowledge ( 69 %) and speedy response times ( 65 %).

THE TIME IS ALSO RIPE FOR

DIGITAL SOLUTION PROVIDERS TO ENGAGE WITH

SMES TO SUPPORT

THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION .

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Intelligent SME . tech