THERE is still a dearth of Malay entrepreneurs as only 40% of the close to 1 million companies registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) belongs to Bumiputeras, said Mohd Hatta Md Ramli.

The deputy entrepreneur development minister told Dewan Rakyat today that statistics show that the community is lagging behind. 

This, he said, is attributable to the lack of entrepreneurship spirit and the inclination to explore new areas in business as well as insufficient training.

“It also has to do with the attitude of being overly dependent on the government to become an entrepreneur. However, this requires initiative, skills and the will on their part to seize opportunities and space. There is already ample assistance by the government in place.

“There is also a gap between the expected returns of the financiers and the return of investment achieved by the entrepreneur,” Hatta said.

He said there are Bumiputera entrepreneurs who are unable to tap into existing financial aid for capital due to the difficulty of providing collaterals and fulfilling the terms and conditions required by funders from both the public and private sectors.

He said training programmes, entrepreneurship education, e-commerce programmes, empowering co-operatives, advisory services and financial aid through the ministry’s agencies such as Tekun Nasional, SME Corp, SME Bank and Bank Rakyat – are among the steps taken to address the issue.

The ministry is aiming to produce some 50,000 entrepreneurs within a year, of which he said the focus will mainly be on Bumiputeras. However, Hatta could not provide numbers on how many have failed to make the cut.

Jeffrey Kitingan (Keningau-STAR) asked in a supplementary how would the government change the Bumiputera’s over-dependent attitude, especially in Sabah.

Hatta said the problem is a nationwide one and is not confined to Sabah alone.  

“We want them to have the initiative, be independent and brave to face challenges but at the same time they need some support from the government.

“On that note we have to be fair and not completely do away with the assistance we have been providing. We have to encourage them by providing the relevant inputs so that they will be able to be independent and reduce their dependence on the government,”

Hatta said the process will take time and he is hopeful that the implementation of new policies over the years will lead to the birth of independent and self sufficient entrepreneurs. – July 8, 2019.