KOTA KINABALU, June 24 — Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Phoong Jin Zhe has proposed three policy changes in order to create a global entrepreneurship ecosystem in Sabah.

Phoong said the three policies are setting up entrepreneurship council, creating an online one-stop centre for entrepreneurs and to start an entrepreneurship incubator — to prevent overlapping and duplication of work between agencies involved.

"With about only four million population in Sabah, entrepreneurs cannot be looking at domestic market only. You need to look at the whole region, Indonesia, Philippines, South East Asia ...Asia Pacific, because Sabah is having the least or smallest entrepreneurs exporting business which creates the logistic and trade deficit. This cost us. We cannot go bigger.

"A World Bank report even said that our local business is not really into exporting business. So with this feedback I’ve briefed the Cabinet, I said we have to come up with all initiative to encourage our local entrepreneurs to export. So, whenever we have camp, courses or program, we have to encourage entrepreneurs to go bigger. Export. Create Sabah own brand,” he said at the V Creator Pitch competition at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) today.

Phoong added Sabah has many creative entrepreneurs with many good products, but many limitation and hiccups stopped them to go bigger.

The government, he said, need to work hand in hand with the relevant associations, business and industry leaders to promote Sabah products to overseas or even Peninsular Malaysia.

With the new proposed policies, he said it can facilitate both government and entrepreneurs to find ways going into the global market.

"With the proposal to set up an entrepreneurship council, we can connect entrepreneurs with related agencies, which it will eventually help the government to have better coordination between ministries to prevent overlapping and duplication of works.

"Meanwhile, creating a one-stop centre for entrepreneurs to help them find out what are the assistance from the government they can apply for such as grant or micro-credit, training or courses... where this centre can be done through a platform or mobile application.

"I also believe we need to start an entrepreneurship incubator to give our entrepreneurs better access to mentorship that will guide them to grow,” he said.

With many big investments coming to Sabah, Phoong also said both government and entrepreneurs need to look at this as an opportunity to create a global entrepreneurship ecosystem in Sabah.

The V Creator Pitch competition is a five-day entrepreneur camp organised by Sabah Entrepreneurs Transformation (SET), participated by entrepreneurs vying for RM50,000 cash prize. — Borneo Post