70 pct of entrepreneurs inactive in ventures

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Seventy per cent of local entrepreneurs under the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKDW) in Sarawak have been identified as inactive in their previously pursued business ventures.

Deputy Minister Datuk Rubiah Wang said the latest records showed only 67,000 to 70,000 out of the total of 1.3 million entrepreneurs are still actively engaged.

“We have analysed that 80 per cent of them (active entrepreneurs) are ‘piko’ entrepreneurs, meaning the subsistence entrepreneurs whose income is less than RM60,000.

“The rest are ‘nano’ entrepreneurs with an income of RM60,000 to RM150,000 and another category is ‘micro’ entrepreneurs with an income of over RM150,000 per month,” she said.

She said this when met by reporters after conducting a visit to the Mini Rural Entrepreneur Carnival (KUD) site in Kota Samarahan on Thursday.

She further stated ‘piko’ and ‘nano’ entrepreneurs would be given priorities to upgrade their entrepreneurial activities by enhancing product marketing through digital platforms and new technologies.

“The marketing platform “Desamall ” as one of KKDW’s new initiatives is to ensure rural products, in particular, can penetrate the market more extensively and widely.

“Desamall is an online shop just like Lazada, Shopee, and any other large online companies.

“At this moment, a total of 3,000 products have been included in Desamall and marketed for a broader market,” she said.

Therefore, she hopes entrepreneurs can benefit from the organisation of mini KUD to ensure their products do not lag behind in seizing opportunities to be promoted on the Desamall platform.

“Hence, through KUD, we will provide information, technology, and packaging advisory services in an effort to improve the quality of products. We will implement Mentor-Mentee programmes,” she explained.

However, she said not all products qualify for inclusion in Desamall, but so far, the effort has been progressing well, significantly impacting rural entrepreneurs’ products.