KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today expressed his happiness that government efforts to assist the Indian community had produced many successful entrepreneurs from the ethnic group.

He said the success was not merely a figure in the chart on paper, on the contrary, he had personally met with and listened to their success stories.

"This afternoon, after launching the MRT in Damansara, I proceeded directly to Klang to visit and meet with the small and medium entrepreneurs from the Indian community with various background.

"Each of them had impressive success through the government initiative under the Special Secretariat to Empower Indian Entrepreneurs or SEED under the Prime Minister's Department," he said via his latest entry in his official website, najibrazak.com. 

The Prime Minister said he began the visit by dropping at the cable-making factory, Lotus Cable Industries Sdn Bhd, and chatted with several workers at the factory.

According to Najib a factory operator known as Manivanan was one of the recipients of the aid fund from the SME Bank under the Business Accelerator Programme who succeeded in expanding his business and providing many employment opportunities.

In his jotting, the Prime Minister also shared the story of a woman, Premalatha who was a trader and fishmonger who previously worked at a factory before venturing into business at the night market.

Najib said after receiving training and assistance from Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, Premalatha had now become a successful entreprneur and could own a house, besides two cars, a motorcycle and could afford to send her child to the university.

"There are many other success stories shared by them here, including restaurant operator, Jagabar Ali, air-conditioning entrepreneur, A. Paramesvaran, hotel operator, Pravin, candy entrepreneur Srithren who also now owned the Marry Brown franchise.

Najib said one similarity from the success stories was how benefits were received through the efforts and initiatives of SEED and the various programmes initiated for the purpose with the participation fee at just RM1.

He said SEED also played the role of mediator, to show the right path and introduce entrepreneurs to programmes and assistance offered by the various government agencies like SME Bank, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, MIDF and many more.

In fact some entrepreneurs could penetrate bigger markets by obtaining Halal certificates from the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim).

In his posting, Najib also uploaded a number of pictures taken when he met entrepreneurs involved in such programmes. — Bernama