More to qualify for SME award

Monday July 21, 2008

More to qualify for SME award

By SHAHRIL CHE WAN


The Terengganu government is confident that local entrepreneurs will qualify for the new category of SME Young Entrepreneur Award under this year's SME Recognition Award.

State Trade, Industrial and Environment committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw said more robust and quality entrepreneurs had been created with the support and expertise of the state’s Entrepreneur Development Foundation (YPU).

“Therefore, we anticipate that there would be more locals vying for the (SME Recognition) award this year.

“We hope with the cooperation from YPU, more participants could be lured to compete for the award,” he said during the award briefing in Kuala Terengganu recently.

Toh added that the YPU as a state government agency had been successful in providing the essential thrust in creating superlative entrepreneurs.

He also noted that the state government had provided numerous incentives to local entrepreneurs including slashing the interest rate for loans to 2% from 4%.

The roadshow on the award will cover 10 other states including Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Malacca and Johor.

Organised by the SMI Association of Malaysia, the annual award is open to all local small and medium enterprises (SME) and nominations should be submitted before Aug 31. There are 16 categories that would see a total of 88 winners including two other new categories - Social Responsibility Excellence Award and Government-Linked Enterprise Excellence Award.

STAR Online