By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, Oct 23: The Chamber of Sarawak Bumiputera Entrepreneurs (DUBS) Miri suggested six initiatives that should be in the Federal government’s election manifesto for the 15th General Election (GE15) aimed to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
According to its chairman Mohammad Hafidz Rohani, small and medium traders have expressed their worries about the current uncertainty of the economy.
“With the ringgit’s value weakening against the United States dollar and Singapore dollar, the situation is worrying because our purchasing power is shrinking.
“In less than a month, Malaysians will elect another government that is expected to be more stable and mature to lead Malaysia to a more glorious direction,” he said in a statement.
The six initiatives are as follows:
- The government needs to set a standard in terms of the minimum payment in the tender committee of government agencies.
- Returning the role of some government agencies, such as SME Corporation Malaysia, to grant-giving agencies as before compared to loans and grant-giving criteria that include micro-businesses with larger funds.
- To re-examine the role of overlapping agencies in providing training, grants, and so forth.
- Give focus to entrepreneurs in states or rural areas that could benefit from assistance.
- To be more ‘strategic-centric’ in product sales platform application development or entrepreneur development as inter-agency cooperation is better than moving in silo (operating in a kind of bubble).
- Loan accessibility to SMEs, including expediting their loan approvals.
— DayakDaily
