KUCHING: The four-day Citrawarna Keluarga Malaysia 2022 is expected to achieve a total revenue of RM200,000 for handcrafts sales, with more than 50,000 visitors to the carnival.
Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said RM162,000 was collected from the handicrafts sales, on the first three days of the event.
“For the first day, we have collected RM34,000 from the crafts sales and it has reached RM162,000 (cumulative sales) on the third day,” she said.
“The response is very positive and encouraging, hence, I am confident we can achieve RM200,000 revenues from a total of 53 handcraft entrepreneurs when the event ends (today),” she said at a press conference held here today.
Nancy said there were 53 entrepreneurs participating in the carnival as there were some involved in the ongoing National Craft Day (HKK2022) programme in Kuala Lumpur.
The Batang Sadong MP said the public should give their continuous support and further promote the local and unique handcrafts.
“This will help the small traders to generate more income and set up a benchmark for their crafts and products,” she said.
She said her ministry was observing the response from visitors for the handcrafts as it would inspire the artisans to create more and quality products for the handicraft industry, including the ‘sape’ instrument.
She said the Citrawarna Keluarga Malaysia 2022 acted as a platform for the small entrepreneurs to promote their products and be ready for more upcoming events and festivals.
“For instance, the batik entrepreneurs have multiplied over the years, hence, the government has suggested that corporate bodies use batik as their uniforms in addition to promoting local batik art.”
“This is one of the government initiatives to help the young entrepreneurs as well as those living in the rural areas – in earning an income through their unique handicrafts,” she said.
Apart from that, Nancy said many other sectors which were directly involved in the programme including those who set up the canopies, media, advertisement, also benefited from the event,
Commenting on the public’s verdict of the Covid-19 transmission, she said that the fear factor will always be there through the mutation of a new variant of Covid-19.
“The new Covid-19 variant will always transmute but we shall learn to live in the new norm. If the Citrawarna is not hosted this time here, it will still proceed elsewhere at the end of the year (which we don’t know if there’s another new variant.”
“So, we need to learn to adopt and manage the standard operating procedures (SOPs) well,” she said.
