KUCHING: The Rural Entrepreneur Mini-Carnival (KUD) held in Kota Samarahan is a platform to provide exposure to new and old rural entrepreneurs in Sarawak to expand their businesses.
Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development (KKWD) Datuk Rubiah Wang (pix) said the inaugural mini-carnival was held to give guidance and advice to rural entrepreneurs to increase their productivity.
“This is one of the ministry’s strategies to help in the rural community’s economic development. We will announce the schemes or services provided by the ministry through agencies like Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda), FELCRA Berhad and so on.
“The ministry has programmes for start-up entrepreneurs, development and also for high-potential entrepreneurs. So far, Mara has produced a total of 177 entrepreneurs categorised as Gate to Global where their sales products have penetrated three countries,” she told a press conference after surveying the mini-carnival at Halaman Samarahan here today.
Rubiah said the mini-carnival is also aimed at helping rural entrepreneurs have a better and more orderly business system which can help increase their income and, thus, develop the rural community.
“In conjunction with the mini-carnival, we also invited other companies, particularly retailers like Mydin, Petronas, Shell and Aeon, to see which of the entrepreneurs’ products they can help to market,” she said.
She said the ministry is targeting a total of 30,000 people to visit the four-day mini-carnival, which began today, and a sales target of RM300,000.
Rubiah added that the ministry had also extended the participation period for the Rural Business Challenge 2.0 (RBC 2.0) to encourage rural entrepreneurs to join the programme, which offers business grants amounting to RM15 million.
“So far, 1,150 entrepreneurs have submitted their applications from the 5,917 accounts registered under the RBC 2.0 system as of Jan 29,” she said. -Bernama
