KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 – A special Cabinet committee will be formed to help young entrepreneurs to acquire more knowledge and skills to compete in a bigger market, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced Saturday. He said he would personally chair the committee to ensure the government would achieve the target to turn out 10,000 young entrepreneurs by 2020.
“We target to turn out 2,000 young, successful and presentable entrepreneurs this year. By 2020, we want to have 10,000 successful young entrepreneurs,” he said when launching the Jelajah Usahawan Malaysia Pakar (JUMP) programme at the Putra World Trade centre here Saturday.
The deputy prime minister said the federal government and several related agencies including the Permodalan Usahawan Nasional Berhad, viewed seriously efforts to assist young entrepreneurs, not only in terms of capital, but also in developing business management skills. He said the 1Family 1Entrepreneur programme proved that the government was serious in helping to increase household income.
Ahmad Zahid said, based on statistics, 61 per cent of Bumiputra entrepreneurs were not capable of conducting market study, 61 per cent were not capable of preparing a financial report and 58 per cent were not skilled in ensuring flow of product. He said 26 per cent of entrepreneurs had the opportunity to attend six-month entrepreneurship training, while 57 per cent had the opportunity to attend entrepreneurship training of less than six months.
In support of the young entrepreneurs development programme, he said, the government has agreed to provide a RM1 million fund for the 2016 JUMP programme. The JUMP programme organised by the Successful Expert Network Organisation, a non-government organisation aimed at strengthening the mind and spirit of entrepreneurs to face the competitive business sector.
Its patron-cum-JUMP Committee Chairman, Datuk Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid said the programme would he held nationwide according to zones namely central, south, north, east coast, Sarawak and Sabah. Through this programme, she said the participants, especially small-scale entrepreneurs, would receive business guidance from successful entrepreneurs such as Datuk Seri Mahadi Badrul Zaman, Datuk Dr Lawrence Welter Ng, Datuk Aliff Syukri Kamarzaman, and celebrity entrepreneur Fizo Omar.
