The Source of Information of The Government Sponsored Business assistance Among Micro-sized Entrepreneurs in Kelantan, Malaysia

This study seeks to investigate the sources of information pertaining the government sponsored business assistances
among micro-sized SMEs in Kelantan, Malaysia. Despite the numerous business assistances offered by a number of
agencies that are accessible to the micro-sized SMEs, the present study shows that majority of the respondents have
acquired the information from friends rather than the government agencies. Trustworthiness and timeliness are the
factors cited for choosing friends as information provider. However, information obtained from friends sometimes
inaccurate and incomprehensive. As a result, many of these business support programmes are not fully understood
therefore not utilised. The study also shows majority of respondents perceived financial assistance is the only type of
business support available. Thus, majority of the respondents used financial services (loan) from the government
agencies without taking much heed of the other support programmes. These findings indicate an inadequate knowledge
among micro-sized SMEs on the various type of the government support programes. It is recommended that a more
pro-active measure should be undertaken by the government agencies concerned to aggressively disseminate
information of the various business support programmes. The failure to efficiently propagate the availability of these
services has a great impact on the performance of the micro-sized SMEs.