KUALA LUMPUR (July 10): The government should ensure the assistance or “crutch” provided is able to produce quality and competitive Bumiputera entrepreneurs and expand the market for local products and services abroad.

National Entrepreneurship Institute (INSKEN) chief executive officer Firdaus Azharuddin said various efforts have been carried out to realise these goals but nine out of 10 entrepreneurs who had received aid, failed to fully exploit it.

“We should produce Bumiputera entrepreneurs who can contribute to the country's economy and are able to sustain their business for the long term, while competing with the multinational companies,” he said during the Bicara BHprogramme on the topic “Between Lameness and Crutch” which was streamed on Berita Harian Online's Facebook page today.

Firdaus said quality entrepreneurs are able to fully harness the assistance given by the government and would not depend on the “crutch” forever.

“The government and (relevant) agencies must steer this group (of Bumiputera entrepreneurs) in one direction, namely towards getting their business to penetrate the overseas market,” he said.

Concurring with Firdaus, SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) chairman Datuk Seri Syed Hussien Al Habshee said the agency does not want to squander the government's “crutch” and in fact wants to ensure that the entrepreneurs do not just rely on the aid provided.

“We want to see quality entrepreneurs who are able to give back the ‘crutch’ so that it can then be passed on to new entrepreneurs who wish to follow in the footsteps of these successful entrepreneurs,” he added.

He noted that one of the programmes under SME Corp is the Young Bumiputera Entrepreneurship Programme (TUBE), a government initiative to encourage youths to venture into business. 

TUBE, which provides training as well as grants, supports the nation's youth development policy, where entrepreneurship is one of the key focus areas for youths to move forward.

Meanwhile, Syed Hussien said it's high time the government reduced the number of agencies monitoring the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

According to him, there are some 50 agencies under various ministries that monitor SMEs with a similar scope of work.

“Looking at the number of existing agencies, there are just too many. It's time to trim the number and only focus on entrepreneurs who are really interested to grow their business,” he added. — Bernama