Government will not stop granting subsidies to businesses

KUALA LUMPUR (23 October): The government will continue to grant grants to entrepreneurs under the 2019 budget, but a comprehensive assessment of the activity will be carried out in advance, said today. Minister of Development, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof.

"We will give it if we are very clear on the subject and we understand it, contrary to what had been done before, that no evaluation was carried out before the payment of subsidies," he said at from a press conference held today.

Commenting on the national entrepreneurship policy, he said that the ministry was refining the draft policies and that it should be tabled next month.

"We have just concluded our brainstorming session with our officers and will reveal more about the policy next month, but we hope to achieve the goal of increasing the contribution of Bumiputera's entrepreneurs to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). ", he added.

Earlier, Mohd Redzuan announced that the government's goal is to increase the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises to GDP by 42 percent by 2020, compared to 37 percent currently.

He added that the government would launch programs to strengthen the contribution of businessmen Bumiputera to the GDP of the country.

At the same time, Mohd Redzuan said the ministry plans to conduct more programs related to the wood carving industry in order to attract more young entrepreneurs, this industry having tremendous growth potential.

"The wood carving industry in Malaysia is still untapped. In 2017, there were nearly 400 contractors involved in wood carving and only 1,300 employees, "he said.

He likened the wood carving sector in Malaysia to that of Jepara in central Java, Indonesia, which had 80,000 entrepreneurs and 250,000 people.

The Minister made a two-day working visit to Jepara yesterday to study and evaluate the area and to look for partnership opportunities between Malaysia and Indonesia.