The National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (DKN2030) that is launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on 11th June 2019 will chart the direction towards creating a holistic and conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem to support the equitable and sustainable socio-economic agendas within the next 10 years.
Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof said with this policy, Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED) aims to create a culture of entrepreneurship to encourage entrepreneurs to become job creators and to guide them on the sectors that they can venture in parallel with the growth of the country’s economy.
DKN2030 to focus on halal industry
“If we go deeper into the policy, you’ll see we are taking initiative and strategy to thrive B40 group. This initiative is taken to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor. Rather than forcing them (B40 group) to go for unfamiliar sectors such as mechatronics, we focus on what they can do best – which is halal sector,” said Mohd Redzuan Yusof adding there are about 700,000 entrepreneurs comprising the B40.
Addressing the issue, he said the top sector that DKN2030 will focus more on will be the halal sector. “The annual trade value of the halal global market is USD 2.77 trillion. F&B alone is USD 2.3 trillion and growing up by 20% annually. So, we are targeting this sector aggressively. As you can see in these couple of months, there are a series of the impactful announcement made in term of making Malaysia as the global halal hub for production,” said Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof.
MED will be more targeted in term of giving financial aids
Speaking during the media briefing event, secretary general of MED, Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi, addressed her concern regarding the accessibility of grants provided. “We want to make sure all the grants and financial incentives given will be more targeted. We want to avoid some companies from doing “grants shopping” without providing any positive outcome. MED will take initiative together with other selected ministries to monitor entrepreneurs so that whatever sources we have now will be more targeted.”
Ongoing discussion over financial incentives
Asking about providing tax breaks or financial incentives for companies that supporting government movements such as sustainability or IR 4.0, Mohd Redzuan Yusof commented that the government has been discussing the issue but they haven’t reached the resolution yet.
“We will develop a spreadsheet of a specific industry with differing incentives. This has been discussed but there is no resolution has been reached yet. We are only collecting data for the time being. If the industry, for instance, will help to develop the core competency in this country in term of human capital, I think we will definitely give them more incentives.”
Creating half a million entrepreneurs by 2030
With the new policy, MED is targeting to create half a million entrepreneurs by 2030. “If we move towards digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, contrary to some findings where 50% to 70% of jobs are at loss, World Bank Report indicates by adopting AI and e-commerce, it will create more entrepreneurship. These are reports that we are trying to use as a guide when we implement our initiative under DKN2030,” emphasising that 2030 is just a benchmark or a timeline where the country is heading towards in building an entrepreneurial nation but the policy will continue to go beyond it.
