Kota Baru - There is much that Malaysians can learn from the people of Kelantan, especially their women.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said their strong spirit of entrepreneurship had helped boost the batik and songket industries in the state.
The prime minister said they had started small but ended up employing workers.
"They have helped reduce unemployment in the state. The jobless university graduates out there should become self-employed by setting up small businesses. One day, they will hire workers and become employers," he said when launching the four-day Hadhari Village here yesterday.
Abdullah said the Islam Hadhari approach to business was to boost the entrepreneurial spirit with businessmen offering employment to others.
"Under Islam Hadhari, we want to encourage more people, especially women, to go into business. The government is willing to offer loans to small and medium-scale businesses."
The prime minister said 95 per cent of those who took government loans were women "and they are all good paymasters".
"With Kelantanese women leading the way in running their own businesses, I expect the majority of successful entrepreneurs in the future to be women."
Earlier in his speech, Abdullah said Malaysia would continue with efforts to develop human capital.
He said the country had expertise in various fields which it offered to less-developed countries like Sierra Leone.
He said Malaysia had offered to help introduce the Felda concept of large-scale oil palm crop cultivation in Sierra Leone besides developing petroleum resources in Sudan through Petronas.
Abdullah said the country‘s approach to development had received praise from Professor Jeffery Sachs, a noted economist and special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, whom he had met in Kuala Lumpur recently.
He said Sachs had asked Malaysia to do more for less developed nations. Abdullah was accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah.
Source: www.nst.com.my (18 Agustus 2007)
