Kota Kinabalu: The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry is actively working with various parties to promote the development of cooperatives in the State.
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said among the agencies are Bank Rakyat and the Malaysian Cooperative Societies Commission (SKM).
“For Bank Rakyat, we are considering expanding branches in new towns in Sabah.
“As for SKM, of course we will continue to develop the cooperative movement by providing grants for the development of revolving capital funds to cooperatives in Sabah,” he said after a courtesy call to the Head of State Tun Juhar Mahiruddin here Monday.
Ewon explained that the grants will be used to build infrastructure to expand the business carried out by each cooperative.
“Sabah is one of the highest recipients of development aid from the Malaysian Cooperative Societies Commission this year.
“The same is the case with Bank Rakyat where Sabah is one of the highest in terms of asset ownership among Bank Rakyat customers.
“Of course this opens up opportunities for more planning to be implemented in the future and we will focus on tourism development which is driven by tourism cooperatives in Sabah and other states,” he said.
During the visit, Ewon who led the delegation together with Bank Rakyat and SKM presented several programmes under their respective agencies such as the Cooperative Bank initiative in Sabah, the performance of the cooperative movement and development plans that have been implemented in the State.
In addition, the visit also aims to inform the Bank Rakyat’s performance in Sabah, financing programmes and zakat donations as well as the agency’s corporate social responsibility programmes such as helping flood victims.
Ewon was accompanied by Bank Rakyat Chairman Datuk Mohd Irwan Mohd Mubarak and Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Hanis Osman.
