Malaysia’s Companies Commission, known as SSM, held the Perak edition of its 2026 Business Digitalisation Programme at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA in Ipoh on 3 October. Bernama reported the event on 4 October, saying it attracted nearly 700 participants. The programme was presented as a way to build entrepreneurs’ knowledge and skills in using digital technology, with the stated aims of improving productivity, widening markets and strengthening competitiveness. The attendance figure is approximate and event-specific; it should not be read as an exact 700 or as the number of businesses that later adopted digital tools.

The agenda covered social-media marketing, e-commerce, digital-business operations, digital marketing strategy and financial-scam awareness. Speakers included entrepreneur Wan Fatin Sufina Wan Ahmad on using social platforms to attract customers and increase sales, and Uzair Haqimy on moving a small physical-premises business onto e-commerce and the opportunities and challenges involved. These are topics covered in a training event, not measured impacts. SSM did not publish follow-up figures on participants’ online sales, productivity, new customers, digital adoption or survival rates. A later assessment would need to track these outcomes over time and distinguish attendees from businesses that actually changed their operating practices.

The programme also promoted the Free Business Registration Scheme, or SPPP, for eligible B40 entrepreneurs and full-time students at public and private higher-education institutions, polytechnics and skills institutions. Under the scheme, qualifying applicants may register a business without paying the usual registration fee under the Registration of Businesses Act 1956. SSM’s official 2026 initiatives material says that from 1 June the free-registration period was extended from one year to two years. The extension changes the period of fee relief described by the agency; it does not mean every participant at the Perak event qualified or registered.

SSM reported 226,273 businesses registered under SPPP by 15 September 2026. This is a national cumulative programme count, measured before the Perak event, rather than an outcome of the 3 October training or a count limited to Perak. The release does not give a regional distribution, distinguish registrations still active from those that later ceased, or identify how many registrations were made during the event. The number therefore shows the scale of registrations recorded under the scheme up to a stated date, but cannot by itself describe survival, revenue, employment or the degree to which participants benefited from the longer waiver period.

At the Perak gathering, SSM also distributed RM300,000 through its corporate zakat wakalah and corporate social responsibility funds to entrepreneurs, students, welfare homes, religious institutions and organisations serving people with disabilities. This contribution is a separate event-level transfer from the SPPP registration count. The agency did not publish a breakdown by recipient category in the report, so the total should not be interpreted as an equal payment to each organisation or as financing for the digitalisation programme. Its inclusion points to a broader local support component around the event, while leaving the distribution and subsequent use of funds unspecified.

SSM said the national programme continues and rebrands earlier entrepreneurship initiatives, including the Young Entrepreneurs Programme and Entrepreneur Guidance Programme. Three programme sessions in Sabah, Terengganu and Penang in 2025 recorded more than 2,000 participations, according to the release; that prior-year aggregate is not directly comparable with one Perak event because neither the number of sessions nor the counting basis is identical. PPP26 was described as aligned with the National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 and the Domestic Trade Ministry’s ReDI retail-sector digitalisation initiative. The announcement is evidence of programme delivery and administrative registration totals, not proof of productivity gains. Useful future reporting would show enrolment, completion, regional reach, digital adoption and business outcomes using consistent definitions.