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14th March, 2010
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah women entrepreneurs are urged to form alliances with entrepreneurs from Asean and to exploit the markets in the region.
Wife of the Foreign Minister, Datin Rubiah Abdul Samad said they should expand their regional business network as this will help them strengthen their business brand image and enhance their innovation capabilities to penetrate the international market.
In her speech entitled “Women in Asean 2020” at the Sabah Women Entrepreneurs & Professionals Association (Swepa) International Women’s Day celebration here yesterday, she said they should also take advantage of the reduction and elimination of tariffs and non-barrier tariffs at other Asean member nations.
She said Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines would be reducing and eliminating the tariffs and non-barrier tariffs on many goods from zero to five per cent by this year.
The remaining Asean nations – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – will be doing the same by the year 2015.
The reduction and elimination of tariffs and non-barrier tariffs will create less restrictive and freer trade movements within the Asean nations and this means huge potential for business and investment opportunities, she said.
Rubiah also urged women to think global in order to be competitive and survive.
“The time has come for women entrepreneurs to move a step forward in terms of their business models and approaches. Women do not need to confine themselves to the feminine fields such as beauty products and food alone. They can be bolder and explore other new areas that have lucrative returns,” she said.
What is important, she said, was for women to come up with products with international appeal and to further strengthen their branding.
And, Rubiah also spoke on business funding and of marketing, saying the present loans available for women entrepreneurs were mainly those that catered for small business, particularly in the cottage industry.
She said funds are available through national grants, Services Export Fund under Matrade, financial assistance scheme for the services sector under the SME Corporation and at commercial entities such as banks.
“However, financial institutions are still conservative in their risk management approaches thus making it difficult for the new breed of women entrepreneurs, with innovative ideas but no assets for collaterals, to apply for these loans,” she said.
Rubiah also attributed the long processing period and long queue of applicants to the inaccessibility to government grants and loans.
She stressed that ways must be found to make the grants and loans easily accessible to more specialised areas – particularly those focusing on skills and knowledge.
“This is something that we need to improve on, as great ideas would be useless without proper capital and funding,” she pointed out.
Among those present were Swepa president, Datuk Adeline Leong, vice president, Hanaa Wong Abdullah, Community Development & Consumer Affairs Ministry’s political secretary, Datuk Asnimar Sukarti and Datuk Nancy Ho.
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