MED TO CREATE 50,000 ENTREPRENEURS

KUALA NERUS, Feb 17 (Bernama) – The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED) aims to produce 50,000 small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs)  in order to increase their contribution significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, says its minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof.

He said SMEs currently contributed 37 per cent to the GDP and the target was increase that to 47 per cent by 2020.

He said in order to achieve the target, the ministry has implemented various initiatives including the “Reach Out & Adopt Programme with MED”, pocket talk sessions with SMEs, Cluster Based Enhancement Programme and Bumiputera Youth Entrepreneurship Programme to foster interest and guide those who are really keen.

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“Infact, until December 2018, SME Corporation, an agency under MED, has channelled RM7.1 billion to more than 46,000 entrepreneurs in the form of grants and loans.

"It is channelled through the Business Accelerator Programme, Bumiputera Export Promotion and Bumiputera Enterprise Enhancement (BEEP) programmes and other programmes to help them start and grow their businesses," he told a press conference here today after officiating a stock market seminar.

Commenting further, Mohd Redzuan, who is also Chairman of the Terengganu Economic Action Council, said SMEs made up 98.5 per cent of the business entities in the country with the services sector being the biggest contributor with 89.2 per cent.

He said 15 SME companies were successfully listed on the Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform (LEAP) since it was launched in 2017.

This included entrepreneurs in the field of information technology and product manufacturing that had the potential to be further developed and exported internationally.

"LEAP is a government initiative to encourage more SME entrepreneurs to participate in the capital market thus supporting the development agenda of national entrepreneurs.

"The LEAP market will complement other sources of funding such as crowd funding, peer to peer financing and others,” he added.

-- BERNAMA