YOUNG ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS TO GET GUIDANCE FROM MYCC

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya

JAKARTA, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Being young and having lots of new business
ideas but not being able to implement them may some time be frustrating.

The Malaysia Youth Chamber of Commerce (MYCC) may soon provide solutions to
some of these problems.

The newly minted association helmed by Datuk SM Faisal SM Nasimuddin, the
executive chairman of the Naza Group of Companies and supported by a team of
successful young entrepreneurs, is gearing up to offer guidance to aspiring
entrepreneurs.

"It is timely the MYCC is created as many aspiring entrepreneurs will soon
have a community of like-minded individuals who can assist, nurture, guide and
provide a safety net in their journey to build their own dream business.

"The network will be extensive and expansive; it will cover many segments
within the industries that are instrumental to the nation's economic growth
plans," said Faisal in an interview with Bernama today.

Faisal, who is here on a fact-finding mission with their Indonesian
counterpart Himpunan Pengusaha Muda Indonesia (HIPMI), said the MYCC committee's
diverse background will ensure that various aspects of learning will be covered
and the youth embarking on their ventures will have the benefit of their
collective experiences to succeed and minimise their chance to fail.

"We have not firm up in terms of what kind of support in cluster we are
going to be focusing on, but in general of course it is going to be something of
a networking support, we are going to provide a lot of assistance to the
entrepreneurs because there are a lot of assumptions being a young entrepreneur,
there are a lot of questions without answers.

"So we hope the MYCC can bridge that, support them to make sure that they
can deal a sustainable business rather than repeating the same mistakes that we
have done before," he said.

The proposal to set up the MYCC came from International Trade and Industry
Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

Being a brand new NGO, Faisal said the MYCC members have been tasked and
divided into teams to look into forward plans, activities and vision, mission
and objectives.

"We are also looking into our constitution and will table a budget that is
realistic to support us in realising the outcome of this chamber in the long
run," he said, adding that they would submit the budget to MITI for an annual
grant.

Faisal, who is deputised by Agil Faisal Ahmad Fadzil, is supported by
several other candidates who are now in the pro tem committee, namely Mohd
Fadzli Mustafa (Agil Faisal and Mohd Fadzli are from the Malay Chamber of
Commerce Malaysia) and Noor Irfan Khairi, an Internet marketer who founded Irfan
Khairi Sdn Bhd.

Three other candidates are from SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise). They are
Daniel Cerventus, Tham Keng Yew and Jason Ng, while Ng Yih Pyng is from ACCCIM,
The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia and K.
Mohana Murali and G. Mahadevan, both from MAICCI (Malaysia Associated Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry).

"We also have three women members whom we have invited to join the MYCC.
Insyaallah (God Willing), these women entrepreneurs will be on board soon and
we will announce their names then," he said.

The current executive council members of MYCC are made up of brilliant
people who are doing very well in whatever they are doing, small and big,
but they can do much better.

"I believe we have the right mix in terms of the thinking process, the
business proposition is there but again the reach, sometimes they have the
product but they don't have the marketing reach.

"I mean they can leverage on my experience, they can leverage on a few
other senior partners' experience, to actually distribute their products and
services. We can minimise their risk, not to take away their risk," he said.

Faisal said the MYCC's current direction would be determined in due course,
but it was moving quickly as their next pro tem committee was meeting on Jan 18
to update on the work progress which they have divided among themselves.

At the meeting, Faisal will also share with them the discoveries he had
made on his fact-finding mission in Jakarta with HIPMI.

He said HIPMI chief Erwin Aksa was extending a lot of support to MYCC to
share their experiences in terms of membership and how they run the association.

"He has also extended two or three HIPMI members to come and set up the
foundation and structure of MYCC, you have to be very strong.

"They have experience from 1972. For me, there is no harm learning from
HIPMI, and from there we will see what is workable, what is not workable for
Malaysians and it should be adaptable to time.

"Once everything has been finalised, they will publicly announce their role
and launch MYCC some time in the early second quarter of this year," he said.

Faisal said Malaysia has to create a lot of independent entrepreneurs who
can drive the economy to greater heights.

"I am very supportive of this direction because being an entrepreneur
myself, entrepreneurs act at things differently for the business and for the
benefit of the country.

"At the same time, through MYCC, we can create a sense of loyalty towards
Malaysia and the support to inculcate local networking and regional reach," he
said.
On more workload he and his committee members will be facing in running
MYCC, Faisal said they are taking this opportunity as an honour to serve the
youth community and the country.

"We take it as an honour to be given this brilliant and exciting
opportunity
to make a positive impact in the lives of the young business leaders and be part
of an integral part of nation-building via this economic transformation journey
with the Malaysian youths.

"I can see there is a huge potential and I can see that if MYCC is supported
well, we will be churning out top entrepreneurs in the next five to six, seven
years," he added.
-- BERNAMA


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