MITI hopes GLCs, GLICs will increase efforts to develop more Bumiputera SMEs

GEORGE TOW N: The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) hopes that government-linked companies (GLCs), government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) will increase efforts to grow the number of Bumiputera entrepreneurs.

Its Deputy Minister, Datuk Ahmad Maslan said it was hoped that the GLCs, GLICs and MoF Inc would continue to play their roles in developing more Bumiputera entrepreneurs in line with the Bumiputera Empowerment Agenda.

“As the government owns these companies, I hope the companies’ Chief Executive Officers should be responsive to the aspiration and programmes that can help in the government’s effort to increase the number of entrepreneurs,” he told reporters here yesterday.

He said to date, Malaysia was estimated to have 907,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), out of which only about 37 per cent were Bumiputera SMEs.

Earlier, Ahmad launched the “In-store” programme, a joint effort by MITI and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) to provide space at the Penang International Airport to the SMEs to market and sell their products.

He said this was a pioneer project to help the Bumiputera SMEs expand their business as the airport represented a strategic location.

“I will bring up this programme in MITI discussions so that In-Store could be expanded to other airports in order to assist the SMEs in other states,” he said.

He said only selected Bumiputera SMEs for the InStore programme would have the opportunity to exhibit their products at the airport for a one-month period.

Ahmad said Penang was the state with the least number of Bumiputera SMEs with only 14.8 per cent compared with Terengganu which had the highest number of Bumiputera SMEs at 87.5 per cent.

“The SMEs that are interested to join this programme must register with the MITI offices in each state whereby the selection process will be done by MAHB based on the list of products, packaging and also branding,” he said.

For a start in Penang, some nine SMEs have been selected for the programme for one month from Oct 2 to Nov 1 at the Penang International Airport. — Bernama