PKNS ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAMMES RECORD SALES EXCEEDING RM5 MLN

SHAH ALAM, Jan 28 -- A total of forty-nine participants from the Selangor State Development Corporation’s (PKNS) Graduate Entrepreneur Programme (GROW) and Student Entrepreneur Programme (PUM) 2021 recorded more than RM5 million in sales with a profit margin averaging 15 per cent.

The programmes started in June last year with 30 GROW and 19 PUM participants who were guided through an entrepreneur incubator over a period of six months. Participants immersed themselves in business-related fields and learned various business concepts, guided by a team of experienced and successful entrepreneurs.

The PKNS Entrepreneur Development Division organised the PUM programme in collaboration with the Selangor government, which focuses on final year students of public and private educational institutions, involving six months of online basic entrepreneurship modules.

Selangor Housing, Urban Wellbeing and Entrepreneur Development Committee chairwoman Rodziah Ismail said despite the pandemic, participants showed improvement in growing their businesses.

"The participants displayed a high degree of entrepreneurial spirit, were competitive and were bold to venture into new areas," she said at the GROW 2021 and PUM graduation ceremony here today.

PKNS chief executive officer Datuk Mahmud Abbas said both PKNS-initiated programmes aimed at guiding young entrepreneurs. The training went right up to helping participants to export their products abroad.

Participant Mohamad Amir Awang, 29, who won the Best GROW Entrepreneur PKNS 2021 award in the retail sector category, said product marketing techniques were important elements applied in GROW which enabled them to raise their sales profits.

He added that sales rose when he applied what he learned when selling food supplements.

“I started with a very minimal sales volume when I first participated in the GROW programme. I had virgin coconut fat powder as a new product. A previous product - Arabic gum from Sudan - had supply issues due to the 2020 lockdowns.

“But when I entered this programme, monthly sales of the new product rose to between RM30,000 and RM40,000 when I applied the training I received from GROW,” he said.

-- BERNAMA