How long does it take for Malaysian businesses to pay their bills and what does that say about our economy?

In this episode of Enterprise Explores, Dawn Lai, CEO of Experian Information Services Malaysia unpacks the findings from Experian’s 2025 State of Credit Report. The report introduces the Industry Debts Turned Cash (IDTC) metric to assess real-world payment behavior across seven core sectors, including construction, manufacturing, retail, and transport.

While average payment delays have slightly improved overall, from 64 to 61 days, the SME segment still lags behind large corporates, reflecting deeper structural issues like cash flow constraints, limited credit access, and digital adoption gaps.

We dive into sector-specific insights (why construction improved, but logistics worsened), the role of e-invoicing in promoting transparency, and the rise of tools like invoice factoring. Dawn also shares how businesses can strengthen internal controls and manage working capital in uncertain times.

Whether you're running an SME or managing corporate credit, this episode offers critical insights into Malaysia’s business health, measured not by sales, but by cash flow timing.

Produced by: Kishan Sivaswamy

Presented by: Roshan Kanesan

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Categories:  markets,  economy,  Corporates,  managing,  SME

Tags:  sme financing,  credit management,  cash flow,  experian,  malaysian economy,