Awang Tengah: Entrepreneur Devt To Be Given More Emphasis

KUCHING: The government will give more emphasis on entrepreneur development including small-medium enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of the economy.

In stating this, Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said entrepreneurship is globally recognised as having significant contributions to the economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and exports.

“The Ministry of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment (Mieti) will coordinate and collaborate with all agencies involved in entrepreneur development in the state.

“This will ensure more efficient and effective implementation of various programmes and projects for entrepreneurs,” he said yesterday after attending a briefing on the proposed structure for the ministry – formerly known as Ministry of Industrial Development (MID) – in order to undertake its new roles and responsibilities including streamlining the roles and functions of MID and Entrepreneur Development and Halal Industry Unit which was previously under the Chief Minister’s Department.

The closed-door briefing held at a leading hotel here, which was also attended by Assistant Minister of Entrepreneur

Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais and Assistant Minister of Industrial Development (Investment and Promotion) Datuk Julaihi Narawi, was conducted by the ministry’s permanent secretary Datu Liaw Soon Eng.

Awang Tengah, who is also Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister, noted that as the state embarked on its industrialisation programme, the need for skilled manpower was also crucial.

“In this respect the ministry will work closely with the relevant industry players as well as educational and technical institutions to ensure a ready pool of skilled workforce to meet the demand of the industries.

“The ministry will also continue to develop more industrial estates particularly in the rural areas in line with Chief Minister’s ‘Go Rural Policy’.

“This will help to stimulate the rural economy and reduce the development gap between the urban and rural areas,” he remarked.

He also pointed out that the ministry has been tasked to further develop the oil and gas industry particularly the value adding downstream activities through the Sarawak Oil and Gas Development Unit (Sogdu) which was approved by the cabinet recently.

“In addition, this unit will facilitate the increased participation of Sarawakians and Sarawak-based companies.”

With Sarawak blessed with abundant natural resources, Awang Tengah said there was also a need to leverage on the utilisation of these resources to create more wealth and prosperity in order to accelerate the industrialisation of the state.

“In this respect, we need to bring in more investment particularly Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to develop our industries. One of the government’s initiatives in our industrialisation agenda is the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) which will propel Sarawak to achieve a high income economy.

“Although SCORE has been successful in attracting 21 approved projects with investments totalling RM30.70 billion, the state has to intensify its promotion efforts abroad in order to directly engage with foreign investors,” he added. - BP