SME CORP AIMS 10 PCT CUMULATIVE SALES VALUE INCREASE FOR TUBE PROGRAMME

KUALA LUMPUR, 4 Julai (Bernama) -- SME Corporation Malaysia aims to increase the cumulative sales value of the Tunas Usahawan Belia Bumiputera (TUBE) programme by more than 10 per cent to RM150 million by year-end.

Chief executive officer Rizal Nainy said SME Corp is optimistic that the target could be achieved driven by the opening of economic sectors and international borders.

“The 10 per cent growth is significant, we hope entrepreneurs of the TUBE programme can increase their sales from five to 10 per cent,” he told reporters after the launching of the TUBE@PEMERKASA programme today.

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The programme was launched by the Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (KUSKOP) Datuk Muslimin Yahaya, who represented the minister Tan Sri Noh Omar.

Meanwhile, Rizal said TUBE programmes were mostly from the food and beverage (F&B) industry but SME Corp would also focus on the agro-food sector to further strengthen food security in the food supply chain.

The training sessions under the TUBE@PEMERKASA programme this year was conducted online, starting June 16, 2022 until July 8, 2022, involving 400 participants nationwide of which, 204 participants have participated in Session 1 of the training and the rest are undergoing training under Session 2.

A RM10 million fund have been allocated for the programme for the distribution of business grants worth between RM10,000 to RM15,000 to potential Bumiputera youths.

So far, RM5 million of the fund have been channeled to SME Corp.

Since its establishment in 2014, the TUBE programme has trained a total of 6,782 youths to venture into business and out of that number, 98 per cent of the participants or 6,633 entrepreneurs were successfully created based on registered businesses.

The programme has also created 12,242 job opportunites.

A total of RM43.23 million in business grants were disbursed to successful participants and as a result, the programme recorded a cumulative sales value of RM140.6 million as of June 2022.

-- BERNAMA