By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, Aug 21: Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) Sarawak allocated RM136,598,100 to help entrepreneurs in the low-income group (B40) to expand their businesses in the first half of the year 2022, of which RM6,235,500 was disbursed to Sahabat AIM participants in Niah.
“Apart from being a microfinance provider to entreprenuers in the low-income group, it has many other schemes to help its Sahabat, under Sahabat Security and Welfare Fund (TKKS). AIM helps to alleviate the burden of Sahabat who have been affected by disasters,” said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan at AIM Niah’s award presentation night in Miri yesterday.
He added, that for the fifth month of this year, cumulatively for the Sarawak Region, TKKS payments to Sahabat AIM totaled RM23,590,182.80.
Thus, Awang Tengah who is also Minister for International Trade and Investment called on Sahabat AIM to fully utilise these advantages.
He also applauded AIM Sahabat Usahawan participants in Niah who managed to fully repay their loans without any repayment problems since the branch was established in 2015.
“This encouraging rate proved the commitment of the participants in repaying their loans on time,” he said.
The Sarawak government, he said, remains committed to supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including B40 entrepreneurs who make up 98.5 per cent of the entire business community.
“This group plays an important role in creating job opportunities, increasing income and contributing to the economic growth of the country including Sarawak….to empower SMEs, the State government through my ministry implements various programmes to increase the capacity of entrepreneurs through training and marketing local products to a larger market,” he pointed out.
Awang Tengah added that in the year 2021 until the second quarter of 2022, his ministry has assisted more than 15,000 entrepreneurs through various financial assistance, capacity-building and product promotion programmes.
“For us in Sarawak, we are very grateful because our government is very concerned about the people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from the assistance from the federal government, the Sarawak government has also allocated more than RM5.7 billion under the BKSS 1.0 package up to BKSS 8.0 to help those badly affected including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs),” he said. — DayakDaily
