Government to launch landmark programmes to recognise role of social enterprises

The prime minister said the programmes, social enterprise certification and social procurement incentive would also provide benefits and incentives and badges of honour for social enterprises.

"This is on top of the target of 1,000 new social enterprises by 2018 which I committed to during the launch of the National Social Enterprise Blueprint in May, 2015.

"The certification programme will benefit at least 500,000 B40 individuals through the work of these social enterprises. This certification will be introduced by the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) beginning June, 2017."

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said this at the launching of the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Community (GECommunity 2016), here, today.

The two-day summit themed 'Reimagine the Future of Entrepreneurs', sees the participation of more than 4,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders and ecosystem influencers.

On creating the entrepreneurship development ecosystem, Najib said there were now over 150 entrepreneurship development programmes being implemented by 15 ministries and 60 agencies across all target groups to ensure inclusivity across society.

Among the development programmes are the National Entrepreneurship Development Plan, Entrepreneurship Portal and Entrepreneur Test Beds and Perwani initiative; designed to give women access to greater economic opportunities.

"There are now 13,044 Perwani groups operating across the country with 170,693 women participating.

"We have also set up the 1Malaysia Entrepreneurship boot camp, training 5,000 young entrepreneurs every year. So far, 25,877 entrepreneurs have benefited from the experience," he said.

In addition to launching GECommunity 2016, Najib said the government also marked the completion of Malaysia Commercialisation Year 2016 (MCY16) to showcase the key successes, the synergies and the dynamism that emerged from these programmes.

"At this time, I would like to announce the second wave of the MCY for 2017 or MCY2.0. We are confident that next year will see many new, innovative tech-based solutions including from the private sector and industry.

"We will also invite our regional country partners to be part of the commercialisation platform in Malaysia," he said.

At the event, Najib also announced two strategic initiatives that will be undertaken by the government through MaGIC, namely the Global Accelerator Programme and the ASEAN Impact Challenge.

These initiatives, he said, were designed to support each other in creating entrepreneurs who would have transformative effects on their various sectors and communities.