Entrepreneur Minister Steven Sim calls for faster cooperative funding approvals within a week to boost business growth and economic contribution.
BUTTERWORTH: Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Steven Sim wants the Malaysian Cooperative Societies Commission (SKM) and the ministry to speed up approvals for cooperative funding applications, with a target of one week for eligible cases.
He said the move is important to ensure that government allocations can be quickly utilised by cooperatives to expand their businesses and strengthen the sector’s contribution to the national economy.
“I tell SKM, I tell KUSKOP (Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Ministry), when applications are submitted, don’t take months, don’t take weeks.
“If possible, within a week, we should approve the applications requested by the cooperatives,” he said when launching the national-level 2026 National Cooperative Day celebration at PICCA @ Butterworth Arena here today, which was also attended by SKM chairman Lt Gen (Rtd) Datuk Ahmad Norihan Jalal.
He said KUSKOP, through SKM, has allocated RM254 million to the cooperative movement this year, the largest amount in the ministry’s more than 100-year history, with RM53 million already approved for several cooperatives nationwide.
Sim also urged cooperatives to move faster in applying for the available funds, stressing that the allocation is meant to be utilised to strengthen the sector rather than left idle.
He said applications that meet the requirements and have complete documentation should not be delayed, as faster fund disbursement would enable more cooperatives to expand their operations.
On the development of the cooperative movement, he said Malaysia had more than 16,000 registered cooperatives with nearly 7.3 million members as of the end of last year.
He added that cooperative share capital now stands at nearly RM20 billion, while total assets have reached almost RM200 billion, demonstrating the sector’s strength as one of the drivers of the national economy.
He also said cooperative business revenue rose by almost 20 per cent from RM68 billion in 2024 to more than RM82 billion last year, putting the movement on track to exceed its RM100 billion target by 2030.
He said that through the Power Up 10,000 programme, nearly 140 micro cooperatives have grown into small cooperatives, while 33 small cooperatives have become large cooperatives and 16 medium cooperatives have moved into the large cluster category.
Sim also announced that two more cooperatives had entered the premier cooperative category this year, bringing the total number of premier cooperatives in the country to seven.
The National Cooperative Day 2026 celebration, held over three days starting yesterday, brings together the cooperative movement, government agencies and industry players to promote the role of cooperatives as drivers of socio-economic development.
