Fatimah seen speaking during the programme’s virtual launching ceremony yesterday. – Screengrab from Startup Malaysia/Facebook
KUCHING (Aug 19): The Ministry of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development is keen to help Sarawakian women involved in entrepreneurship; thus, it is thankful for the help that it got from Startup Malaysia.
Its minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said the ministry is very concerned about the wellbeing of the people, especially the entrepreneurial community in the state.
Startup Malaysia has assisted Fatimah’s ministry by offering Sarawakian women to participate in their programme known as the ‘Rapid Response Recovery Programme (Cohort #6)’.
“The proposal of Startup Malaysia (to hold the programme especially for Sarawakian women involved in entrepreneurship) is very welcomed because it is in line with the efforts of the ministry and agencies under it in order to realise the goals of Digital Economy Sarawak,” added Fatimah during the launching of Cohort #6 here yesterday, which was officiated by her.
For the programme, the Sarawak Women and Family Department (JWKS) together with the Sarawak Women and Family Council (MWKS) which is directly involved with the entrepreneurial focus has nominated a total of 90 women candidates based on criteria set by Startup Malaysia.
“Of the total, I understand that a total of 27 women entrepreneurs have been selected for various business fields. The programme began on August 16 and ends on September 10 and will be conducted through Zoom meeting,” said Fatimah.
Among the criteria set by Startup Malaysia to participate in the programme are the entrepreneur’s business has been operating for at least six months, the business has at least one employee or plans to hire employees in the future and is highly committed and interested in strengthening the business.
Other criteria set are the business of the participant is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic while priority is on entrepreneurs in the rural areas and/or from the B40 or M40 community.
“I found that the topics in the programme (which was divided into three phases), namely the Discovery Phase, Delivery Phase and Implementation Phase such as E-Commerce and the use of social media as a business platform are very suitable and according to the development of the current situation,” she said.
Fatimah and her ministry thus hoped that the four-week programme which consists of 12 sessions will be fully utilised by the selected participants.
She also hoped that the programme will help increase the resilience and survival of Sarawak women entrepreneurs in facing the challenges following the Covid-19 pandemic and will be able to continue to rise to build a business empire in their respective fields of enterprise.