1,735 aid recipients in businesses
SARIKEI: A total of 1,735 monthly welfare assistance recipients in the state have run businesses under the Welfare Department’s micro entrepreneur initiative since its launch in 2013.
When launching the Central Region’s Welfare Micro Entrepreneur Carnival yesterday, Meradong assemblyman Datuk Ding Kuong Hiing said the participants were chosen based on their potential in the field of business.
He explained that they were provided with training for a period of two years before being given launching grants of RM5,000.
Ding noted that 192 programme participants had become successful business operators and no longer required monthly aid.
He pointed out that the department had made a significant achievement in freeing participants from the grip of poverty under an initiative dubbed the ‘poverty exit policy’.
“With continuous support and guidance accorded by the department, more micro entrepreneur participants would become successful,” he said, adding he believed the initiative’s objectives to increase participants’ income to a minimum RM1,000 profit per month is achievable.
Welfare Department state director Abang Shamsuddin Abang Seruji said successful welfare micro entrepreneurs are earning over RM6,000 monthly, with most of them from Kuching and Samarahan divisions.
“They are not different from other entrepreneurs as their products are of high quality and sold on the open market,” he said.
With continuous support and guidance accorded by the department, more micro entrepreneur participants would become successful. — Datuk Ding Kuong Hiing, Meradong assemblyman