KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Ewon Benedick has voiced support for Pacos Trust, a community-based outfit that supports indigenous people in Sabah, to set up a cooperative.
The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister welcomed the proposal, saying this would help improve the people's socio-economic situation, especially those from indigenous communities.
Although Pacos was known more for its mission to fight for basic human rights, he said the time was right for it to expand its role and help increase community income.
"I will ask officers of the Malaysian Cooperative Commission (SKM) to give a briefing to Pacos on the establishment of cooperatives and also briefings from several other ministry agencies," he said when speaking at the Dialogue Programme with Pacos, the Malaysian Advanced Entrepreneurs' Association (PUMM) and the Hawkers and Petty Traders' Association here on Saturday (Dec 31).
Benedick, who is also Penampang MP, said the Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Development Ministry would provide an allocation of RM20mil next year for community-based enterprises.
He also said he hoped that the Penampang Entrepreneurship Development Plan could be completed within the first three months of next year to enable it to be used to implement the ministry's policies and programmes.
He added that the ministry had also proposed for a development council for entrepreneurs, cooperatives, hawkers and petty traders to be set up in every district across the country starting next year.
The ministry has 10 agencies that each has a role to help entrepreneurs, namely Tekun Nasional, SKM, Institut Koperasi Malaysia, SME Corp Malaysia, Bank Rakyat, SME Bank, Uda Holdings Berhad, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, the National Institute of Entrepreneurship and the National Corporation Berhad (Pernas).
