THE Rural Development Ministry is aiming for 50% of women entrepreneurs to be registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) next year compared with 24% so far.

Its minister, Rina Harun, said nearly 84,000 women entrepreneurs were registered with the ministry and only 24% with SSM.

“Women entrepreneurs who are not registered with SSM for fear of not receiving aid, such as living expenses, should open their minds and register to take their business further,” she said after launching the Wacana Ilmu Wanita Inspirasiku (WINS) programme at the Selangor Community Development Department level in Sepang today.

She said awareness should be raised among women to become successful entrepreneurs and that millionaires don’t focus on RM100 a month.

Rina said encouraging female entrepreneurs to register with SSM was part of the ministry’s initiative, so it had teamed up with SSM to register this group for free.

She said in Perak, almost 400 women entrepreneurs had registered for free with SSM, and the overall registered nationwide was 3,000 women.

Rina said the number of women entrepreneurs was expected to reach 100,000 by 2020, therefore efforts should be continued to improve the socioeconomic status of the rural community so that infrastructure and human capital development can be balanced.

Meanwhile, she said next year, the ministry would promote new products in the form of woven and embroidery handicrafts, which have existed in Malaysia for a long time but was not developed.

This is because the handicraft art was gaining popularity, especially on the e-commerce platform, calling for more women to be trained in promoting handicrafts, she said. – Bernama, December 29, 2019.