Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email 4 years, 130,000 entrepreneurs, RM18 billion, 1.1 million trained. Compare that with what our sole representative of our community proudly presented.
Rising number of Bumi entrepreneurs
JOHOR BARU: In four short years the Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development Ministry has produced 130,000 Bumiputera entrepreneurs who are involved in all kinds of businesses all over the country, said Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
He said his ministry, via the various agencies under it, including Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), had issued RM18 billion worth of loans to these entrepreneurs. “The ministry had also attracted 1.1 million people to attend the courses it offered, including those which covered the small and medium scale and service industries.
“We are happy that the BN government has managed to lift the status of the Bumiputera community through higher earnings in various fields of business,” he said at the closing of an entrepreneur programme at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai yesterday. Khaled said more and more Bumiputera youth were now becoming entrepreneurs at a younger age, thanks to loans from the government.
At another function, Khaled said the ministry, through Mara, would set up 20 Perabot Ria outlets before the end of the Ninth Malaysia Plan. He said Mara was confident that the target would be achieved by next year, based on the number of entrepreneurs who have already applied to set up an outlet.
Three have already been opened, including one in Pulai Perdana near here. The move was mooted following a study conducted by the Mara Furniture Technology Resource Centre (Fitec) which ascertained that 90 per cent of the clientele in the local furniture market, worth RM1.25 billion, were from the Bumiputera community. “Perabot Ria will become a brand name soon and Fitec and Mara will be responsible for ensuring that it becomes a success.” He said 330 local furniture manufacturers had already registered with Fitec, adding that their products would on sale at Perabot Ria outlets.
