KUCHING: The Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Ministry (KWKPK) and Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) will collaborate with each other to develop entrepreneurship among women.
Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said they have not yet decided on any specific programme but both parties had agreed to walk together and to complement each other in order to make the collaboration a success.
“We are going to look forward to creating a platform that focuses on enhancing entrepreneurship among women which is in line with the ministry’s goal in developing women and SEDC’s goal in developing entrepreneurship,” she said.
“Women comprise almost half of the state’s population. Both the ministry’s and SEDC’s best clients are women. Because of their commitment and interest, therefore it is only logical for us to provide more opportunities for them,” she pointed out.
“Together, we will be able to provide opportunities for the women to make entrepreneurship their careers and increase their incomes, their families’ economy as well as the state’s economy,” she told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from the SEDC delegation at her office in the Baitulmakmur Building here yesterday.
Fatimah also said that she was impressed with SEDC’s existing programmes which could uplift the women entrepreneurs.
Apart from that, she also talked about “e-Wanita” application which was launched by the Chief Minister recently in conjunction with the state-level International Women’s Day celebration.
The application is a platform which acts as a marketplace for the women entrepreneurs to promote and sell their products. On the day of its launch, all the products in e-Wanita were sold out.
“On May 17, we will have a sale event through the platform (e-Wanita) to promote products like biscuits and cakes for the coming festive seasons of Gawai Dayak and Eid,” she revealed.
“Basically, we want our entrepreneurs to be able to do online business in line with the Chief Minister’s initiative in developing a digital economy,” she added.
Meanwhile, SEDC general manager Abdul Hadi Datuk Abdul Kadir who led the delegation said, “With this strategic partnership, we will focus on developing entrepreneurs and not the profits.
“Through existing schemes in SEDC, we will create robust and integrated strategies so that we can prepare our clients for the next level or even the global market place,” he added.
Amongst those present during the courtesy call were Women, Family and Childhood Development assistant minister RoseyYunus, political secretary Dayang Nurafizawati Abg Abdul Karim, political secretary Jenny Bangga and political secretary Faridah Osman.
