RM107mil Kojadi loans approved to date, says Wee

PUTRAJAYA: A total of RM107mil of Koperasi Jayadiri Malaysia (Kojadi) loans have been approved since its inception, said Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said the loans had benefited some 588 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

“As of today, we are still waiting for the Government to give the allocation for 2018, which should come in around June and July.

“Since its inception in June 2016, the Kojadi loan has approved a total of RM107mil to 588 SMEs. This year we are going to process more applications.

“We are definitely going to disburse a minimum of RM50mil in 2018.

“This will further help the SMEs that require funding from us,” said Dr Wee, after chairing the first meeting of the Secretariat for the Advancement of Malaysian Entrepreneurs (SAME) for 2018 here.

Dr Wee said SAME remained committed to help SMEs in the country to grow.

“Since 2014, it had conducted over 110 events that were beneficial to the SMEs.

“We have made over 40,000 faceto-face interactions with SMEs.

“Through social media, we have also communicated with more than 40,000 people.

“Added with our promotion on radio and printed media, we have reached out to about 2.1 million people.

“As an agency under the Government, SAME wants to help SMEs to the best of its abilities and provide solutions to problems faced by entrepreneurs.”

The meeting, which involved the heads of various Malaysia SME groups, discussed issues affecting entrepreneurs in the country, particularly on the challenges it faced.

“We discussed the foreign worker shortage issue in the country.

“We need to find a solution to this and we hope it can be resolved once and for all.

“This is a very important issue for Malaysia, as our SMEs still rely heavily on foreign workers.

“Especially, in the 3D (dirty, difficult and dangerous) job sector, I do not think our locals have any interest to do it.

“But the SMEs (in this sector) still need to hire workers so that it could continue growing,” said Dr Wee.