KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry (Kuskop)-organised Professional Training and Education For Growing Entrepreneurs (Protege) programme, as of last year, has seen the participation of 64,511 individuals comprising graduates and undergraduates.
Its minister, Datuk Ewon Benedick said this number represented 84 per cent of the target number of participants for the initiative which is 76,690 people by 2025.
This was an encouraging achievement for the ministry to continue with this programme to meet the country’s industry needs, he told reporters after launching the Protege Carnival@Kuskop 2024 at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur (WTCKL) here today.
“By 2030, we aim for Malaysia to be a leading entrepreneurial nation and Protege is a good programme to develop our graduates and students,” he said.
The carnival is the start of a series of six carnivals to be held nationwide including Sabah and Sarawak to promote the entrepreneurship and marketability programmes implemented by Kuskop under Protege.
Ewon said the government provided an allocation of RM30 million under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to implement this Protege programme.
In the same event, Ewon also launched Protege X KRU chat programme which will be implemented with the cooperation of KRU Studios.
In other developments, Ewon encouraged small and informal entrepreneurs affected by natural disasters to participate in the Informal Entrepreneur Formalisation Plan to facilitate their access to various types of assistance including social protection.
“We have this plan with the hope that social protection insurance will be extended to all entrepreneurs nationwide including those in rural areas who do business as hawkers and small traders,” he said.
He added that protection is very important in disaster situations and that was why the plan was launched last year to encourage entrepreneurs to register so that they have access to social protection and so on. — Bernama
