KUCHING: Youths have been urged to venture into business which provides ample opportunities to progress.
Deputy Minister of Utility and Telecommunication (Utility) Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi suggested that they participate in the New Breed Marketing Entrepreneur (NBME) programme where a total of 10,649 individuals have been trained from 2021 to June this year.
The programme has so far produced 685 new entrepreneurs who chalked up sales worth RM15.6 million.
He said NBME is one of the programmes implemented under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) which involves a five-year long-term plan from 2021 to 2025.
“The NBME programme generally targets 10,000 new entrepreneurs, including students from the public and private higher education institutions.
“The main objective of the programme is to create competitive new entrepreneurs in the agricultural and food industries by strengthening businesses to increase the income of targeted groups through digital marketing,” he said.
Abdul Rahman said this in his speech when officiating at the programme held at Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) Santubong yesterday (July 20).
He said the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, through the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA), had developed a marketplace platform known as Agrobazaar Online to help expand the market and increase the incomes of agro-food entrepreneurs.
Through Agrobazaar Online, the NBME programme involves students as marketing agents, who will become new entrepreneurs and indirectly become employed individuals even while still pursuing their studies.
The deputy minister also urged aspiring entrepreneurs to use the platform to market their products.
“Whatever knowledge that is acquired at CENTEXS should be used to start entrepreneurial activities.
“There are many products around us which can be marketed and we can become the marketing agents.
“Existing skills, creativity and innovations should also be enhanced to help the Sarawak government’s aspiration to achieve its goal of becoming a high-income state with high-earning communities,” he added.
Also present were FAMA Sarawak director Ramli Mat Sani and CENTEXS deputy director of Management Norashikin Dahlan.
