13 entrepreneurs in Sabah receive award

KOTA KINABALU (Oct 7): Twelve entrepreneurs received excellence awards in conjunction with the Penampang Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PCCCI)’s 28th anniversary celebration at Magellan Sutera here on Sunday.

The recipients of the award are Garden Bakery, Paumin Hardware Sdn Bhd, CKS Retail Sdn Bhd, Keningau Printing Sdn Bhd, Twinine Sdn Bhd, Krisventure Sdn Bhd, Antah Juta Sdn Bhd, Shu Ren Learning Center Sdn Bhd, Deevin Development Sdn Bhd, Platinum Hotel, Bina PYK (Sabah) Sdn Bhd and Thousand Sunny Logistics Sdn Bhd.

Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick, who officiated the ceremony, hoped their excellence will be an inspiration and motivation to PCCCI entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs to continue to succeed in their respective companies.

He said the contribution of micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 was 39.1 percent or RM613.1 billion, which is better than the previous year.

“In terms of employment, from 7.59 million in 2002 to 7.86 million workers in 2023, which is an increase of 263,000 workers compared to 2022.

“The value of exports grew by 4.5 percent, which makes the export contribution of PMKS amounting to 12.2 percent or RM152.2 billion in 2023 compared to the previous year,” he said.

Accordingly, Ewon wants the business chambers in Sabah, including Bumiputera ones, to continue to play a role in improving the performance of the country’s PMKS.

“I am confident that we can achieve the same excellence when we announce it next year.

“That is why my ministry has given additional focus to the development of PMKS in Sabah and Sarawak, including the development of the cooperative movement in the East Malaysia region,” he said.

Ewon said that under his ministry there are seven funding agencies, namely Bank Rakyat, SME Bank, SME Corp, Pernas, the Malaysian Cooperative Commission (SKM), Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) and Tekun Nasional.

“From these seven funding agencies, we have disbursed RM953.9 million in funding to a total of 53,044 PMKS entrepreneurs and cooperatives in Sabah.

“Based on a state-by-state comparison, last year Sabah was the third highest recipient of the largest funding from KUSKOP.

“This is in line with my vision at the ministry to give additional focus to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

Apart from that, he said his ministry had also introduced various initiatives in line with the needs of Sabah and Sarawak, including the Veteran Entrepreneurship and Financing Initiative (I-VIP) specifically for retirees and veterans, implemented by Pernas.

“My ministry is also discussing with Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) on how to make SESB one of the anchor companies so that suppliers, vendors or contractors under it have access to the ministry’s vendor development grants.

“Our ministry provides a grant of up to RM1 million to any vendor who receives a contract from our anchor company.

“So far, we have 37 large multinational companies that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the ministry. We hope that SESB agrees to our offer so that we can help local vendors in Sabah who are involved with the SESB project to obtain facilities,” he said.

Regarding the development in Penampang, Ewon, who is also the Penampang Member of Parliament, said his ministry had reopened the Tekun national branch office in the district, and in the near future, the SME Corp office will be moved to Penampang to provide better services to the PMKS community in the district.

He also said that this year, under the MADANI government, as much as RM44 billion had been allocated to the PMKS community, compared to RM40 billion in 2023.

“I am very confident that in the Budget that will be presented next week, the PMKS community will continue to be a major focus of the government.

“By examining the challenges and situations that exist today, I am very confident that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will continue to pay great attention to the PMKS community through the channeling of allocation funds and a larger financing guarantee scheme.

“At the ministry level, we have established the secretariat of the National Entrepreneur Development Council to monitor the implementation of PMKS development initiatives so that each ministry can report its implementation to us.

“Likewise with Sabah, we have established an Entrepreneurship Development Coordination Committee between the Federal and State Governments to facilitate cooperation and the channeling of funding needed by the PMKS community in Sabah,” he said.

Also present were PCCI president Victor Kou Lee Chong and Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC) president Datuk Michael Lui.