TOKYO: B40 Bumiputera entrepreneurs from Sarawak and their products are going international.
A government agency, Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (TERAJU) and its collaboration partner Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), have succeeded in penetrating new markets through an international trade mission to Japan to promote and market products produced by the Sarawak entrepreneurs.
Among the products promoted are kelulut honey, black pepper, granulated sugar and Sarawak laksa paste.
The strategic collaboration started in 2020 through the Sustainable Marketing Community (SMART Community) programme under the Dana Pembangunan Usahawan Bumiputera (DPUB) which aims to empower the economy and socioeconomic of the B40 Bumiputera community in Sarawak.
Through the Quadruple Helix method involving four parties, namely government agencies, educational institutions, industry partners and the local community, the initiatives have benefitted more than 233 low-income B40 Bumiputera entrepreneurs in improving the wellbeing of the local community and helping to market their products by penetrating the market globally in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Taiwan, China, the United States and Japan.
TERAJU chief executive officer Datuk Md Silmi Abd Rahman said through the injection of RM7 million, TERAJU as the main coordinator of the Bumiputera empowerment agenda, has collaborated with USM to improve the economy and socioeconomics of the B40 Bumiputera community including small, medium, and large scale local product producers.
(Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera was established in 2011 under the Prime Minister’s Department as a strategic organisation whose role is to lead, coordinate and drive the Bumiputera Agenda aimed at increasing the empowerment of Bumiputera in the national economy.)
He said with the concept of ‘from farm to the international market’, there are more than 31 local Sarawak products that have been successfully exported, adding this is expected to create more job opportunities Sarawakians.
“This is also part of TERAJU’s strategic intervention function to promote Bumiputera products and services to overseas markets as it is in line with our initiative to dignify Bumiputera entrepreneurs at the international level,” he said in a statement today.
Md Silmi said from statistics available, the export value of food products to Japan had recorded positive growth in 2022, with an increase of 12.3 per cent compared to 2021.
In 2022, the export value of food products increased to RM1.18 billion compared to RM1.05 billion in 2021.
“Exports of food products from Sarawak also showed a significant increase of RM11.4 million in 2022 compared to RM10.9 in 2021.
“This shows that there are encouraging demands from the land of the rising sun, thus enabling the formation of a stronger supply chain ecosystem for local products produced by Bumiputeras abroad,” he added.
Meanwhile, SMART Community programme head Syed Yusof Syed Kechik said the programme has worked with seven collaboration partners consisting of three one-stop centres and four international distributors in the United States, China, Saudi, and Japan.
He said this is to facilitate the export of local products which is expected to create a revenue of RM5 million in the next five years with a return on capital of RM19 million.
“Up to now, the sales of local products by the B40 Bumiputera Sarawak community under the strategic collaboration between TERAJU and USM have managed to record a value of RM2.29 million,” he said.
To explore the Japanese market, he said USM has collaborated with the Asian Bridge International Co. Ltd (ABI) which is a Malaysian Bumiputera company based in the city of Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture.
ABI has various expertise focusing on international trade, e-commerce platforms and distribution centres.
“With a strategic location, ABI is able to offer a wide range of services including trade and business preparation as well as brand promotion,” he said.
