PUTRAJAYA, Nov 24 — Winners of the Rural Business Challenge (RBC) 2.0 programme, organised by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW), will receive prizes in the form of business grants totalling RM15 million.

Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Rubiah Wang said the KKDW is targeting more than 2,500 participants for the competition.

She said this during the launch of the RBC 2.0 competition in conjunction with the Rural Entrepreneurs Carnival (KUD) in Anjung Floria here today.

She said applications for participation in RBC 2.0 are open from today until January 31, 2024 through the website RBC 2.0 at https://rbc2u.com.

"Applications will have to go through several vetting and evaluation processes either online or physically,” she said, adding that RBC is aimed at encouraging rural youths to choose entrepreneurship as a career.

She said the competition, which was introduced in 2012, has been given a new lease of life this year with several improvements, especially the youth entrepreneurship programme.

"However, it still maintains its original concept as a business development programme through the organisation of a business plan competition,” she said.

According to her, the improvements include the mentoring and monitoring of the RBC 2.0 winners by experienced entrepreneurs, as well as online participation and the evaluation of RBC 2.0.

Rubiah said the winners are required to implement businesses such as those proposed in the business plan (RP) based on the amount of business grants won.

In order to select the best RP that meets the set objectives and criteria, all RPs will be comprehensively assessed through five levels of evaluation by a panel consisting of KKDW officials and agencies, other ministries, technical departments, banks, industry experts and parties appointed according to the appropriate evaluation level.

Earlier, Rubiah presented graduation certificates to rural entrepreneurs who participated in the 1 Million Entrepreneurs Club (KU1J), one of the support activities under the RBC programme, and who succeeded in achieving a total sales value of over RM1 million.

The KU1J is a coaching and mentoring programme for rural entrepreneurs undertaken together with business guidance experts to achieve the first annual sales value of RM1 million.

"This programme has recorded annual sales revenue of more than RM38 million based on an overall record of 25 participants, which is an increase of 73 per cent compared to the previous year which was RM22 million, with average sales of RM1.5 million for each entrepreneur,” she said.

The three-day KUD event, which began today, was also enlivened with exhibitions and sales by previous RBC winners. — Bernama