Malaysian Young Entrepreneurs Urged To Take Advantage Of Startup And SME Promotion Year 2017

By Nurul Hanis Izmir KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) is encouraging young entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Malaysian government declaring 2017 as the startup and small and medium enterprises (SME) promotion year. Chairman Noraini Ahmad said Malaysia's young entrepreneurs are very talented and creative in their businesses, be it offline or online. "As a government agency, Matrade wants to further help groom them to grow their businesses and explore overseas markets. "This can be done via our programmes, namely the Exporters' Training Programme and eTrade, which is an initiative to increase the adoption for SMEs in the e-commerce platform," she added. She told Bernama this after attending the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indienomics and Mahasiswa Turun Parlimen (Mantap) here Friday. Noraini said MATRADE, the national trade promotion agency had observed an uptrend in online businesses among the youth as a result of it being cost effective and fast. "We have already been approached by companies to assist them and hope to see more coming forward," she added. The MoU will see participants from Mantap given internship programmes and jobs through companies registered with Indienomics. The Indienomics programme is an entrepreneurship movement that combines more than 30 young entrepreneur icons from various industry types such as logistics, media, fashion, publishing and property. Mantap comprises graduates from Malaysian public and private institutions of higher learning as well as overseas. Prime Minister Najib Razak's announcement of 2017 as the Startup and SME Promotion Year, is in line with the role of SMEs in contributing to the nation's growth and labour market. The government has allocated US$16.87 million (RM75 million, US$1 = RM4.44) for programmes under the SME Masterplan, and RM15 billion for various schemes under the Syarikat Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan (SJPP). A sum of RM200 million has also been allocated from the Working Capital Guarantee Scheme (WCGS) Fund to invigorate startups. SJPP's role is to administer and manage two guarantee schemes namely the WCGS and Industry Restructuring Financing Guarantee Scheme (IRFGS) announced by the Ministry of Finance. --BERNAMA