PUTRAJAYA, July 8 — A total of 1,000 micro entrepreneurs has been targeted to participate in the Small Entrepreneur Digitisation Empowerment Programme (Pupuk) by December this year, which will help increase their income by 30 per cent, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said.

He said the target could be achieved through various programmes such as the Pupuk@Shopee which is being implemented at 40 Community Internet Centres (PIK) nationwide as the pioneer project of Pupuk.

The Pupuk@Shopee is currently being participated by 549 micro entrepreneurs who are undergoing training and receiving guidance at the PIK to enable them to shift from traditional business to e-commerce, he told reporters after attending a virtual engagement session with PIK management today.

Pupuk, which was launched by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently, is a digitisation initiative under the National People’s Wellbeing and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) involving an allocation of RM200 million for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and RM100 million for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

To achieve the target, Saifuddin said 600 Pupuk partners would be appointed to be assigned to PIK to help provide entrepreneurship training and guidance for micro entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas.

The minister said the appointment would begin this year until 2021 with an initial target to place Pupuk partners at the 40 participating PIK.

"It will create job opportunities for the people and empower the PIK as a hub to double up efforts to guide micro entrepreneurs nationwide, hence turning PIK as a modern Pupuk hall,” he said.

In line with Pupuk’s targets to benefit 800,000 micro entrepreneurs by 2025, Saifuddin also expressed hope that Pupuk partners would be placed at 873 PIK nationwide to implement various programmes supervised by several agencies, including the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, SME Corp and MYNIC.

On the Pupuk@AEON programme to be launched soon, he said the ministry is expecting the participation of 100 micro entrepreneurs to sell their products either physically at AEON supermarkets or online. — Bernama