‘Govt will not stop giving grants for business’

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will continue to provide grants to entrepreneurs under the 2019 Budget. However, a complete assessment of the business would be conducted beforehand, said Minister of Entrepreneur Development Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof today.

“We will give it if we are very clear on the business and we understand it, unlike how it was (done) previously, where no assessment was conducted before the grants were disbursed,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Commenting on the National Entrepreneurship Policy, he said that the ministry is in the midst of refining the policy drafts and it is expected to be tabled next month.

“We have just completed our retreat session with our officers and we will reveal more about the policy next month, but we hope to achieve the target to increase Bumiputera entrepreneurs’ contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he added.

Previously, Mohd Redzuan announced that the government had targeted to increase the small and medium enterprises’ contribution to the GDP to 42 per cent by 2020, from the current 37 per cent.

He said the government would be rolling out programmes to boost Bumiputera’s contribution to the country’s GDP.

Meanwhile, Mohd Redzuan said the ministry planned to conduct more programmes related to the wood carving industry to attract more young entrepreneurs, as the industry has a tremendous growth potential.

“The wood carving industry in Malaysia is still untapped. In 2017, there were close to 400 entrepreneurs involved in wood carving, and only 1,300 employees,” he said.

He compared Malaysia’s wood carving industry with the one in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia, which had 80,000 entrepreneurs and employed 250,000 people.

The minister was on a twoday working visit to Jepara on Sunday to study and evaluate the industry and to seek partnership opportunities between Malaysia and Indonesia. — Bernama