More inclusive SMEs, start-ups
Published on: Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government takes a business-friendly stance and wishes to see more Sabahans participate in business by providing many forms of assistance to encourage growth among small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. This includes assistance through the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) entrepreneurship development programmes. As at January, there were 102 interns under the SDC entrepreneurship development programmes, with total project cost of RM44.4 million.
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Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman said this programme continued to receive overwhelming response as indicated and that he has requested for it to be continued for another three years. While, the total investment from Bumiputera SMEs under the Teraju@SDC programmes has reached RM1.5 billion. He went on to say that the Mini Sejahtera (Mesej) project is another effort to reduce the incidence of poverty and under SDC, Mesej projects have been developed in Kg Bunang, Sook; Kg Sungai Laba, Sebatik; Kg Kinolosodon, Papar; and Kg Sarap – Siampak, Menumbok. These were completed by August 2011 and have allowed villagers in these areas to earn additional income and stay above the hardcore poverty line.
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Musa who is Chairman of the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (Sedia) said this when chairing the 26th Members of Authority Meeting at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, Tuesday.His speech was delivered by Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Infrastructure Development Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
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Musa said Sedia is now ready to undertake a thorough evaluation of SDC performance, targets, roles and priorities, to ensure the development corridor is on track towards achieving its objectives in line with the Economic Transformation Programme and aspirations of the 2050 National Transformation (TN50). He said Sedia will ensure that the revised SDC Blueprint, which is now over midway of its 18 year implementation period with scheduled end in 2015, takes into consideration global economic prospects. This, in addition to the current State and Federal government development plans, as well as the socio-economic needs of the people who are key stakeholders to the SDC initiative. He also said Sabah's tourism sector continues to gain recognition globally and increasingly by the China market. He said Sabah was named by the Chinese ravel booking site Ctrip as one of the top 10 destinations for the estimated 6.5 million Chinese travellers who ventured abroad in February during the Chinese New Year festive season."To further enhance the tourism industry, the government is developing the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector, with the Sabah International Convention Centre expected to be completed this year."He also noted the Air Freight and Aviation Masterplan study currently being carried out to take advantage of the global trend that is seeing an increase in the demand for air freight and capacity. At the same time, additional new projects have been included under the SDC for the 11th Malaysia Plan, which include the development of the Nabawan Cattle Industry; study on Basic Infrastructure Needs for a Rural Education Hub; masterplan study on the Expansion and Reach of the Sabah Agro-Industrial Precinct. As at January this year, RM2.32 billion was channelled by the Federal Government under the ninth, 10th and 11th Malaysia Plans to Sedia for SDC projects. A total of RM2.16 million has been disbursed by Sedia and a sum of RM165 billion in cumulative committed investments has been recorded since the launch of SDC up until January 31, of which RM66 billion has been realised. "At the Championing Sabah's Digital Economy seminar recently, I had announced the approval of an additional allocation to develop the digital economy.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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