IPOH, June 18 — Perbadanan Nasional Bhd (Pernas) has collaborated with the Perak State Entrepreneurs Secretariat to intensify efforts to empower entrepreneurs in the state through the organisation of the Perak BizFrancais Programme 2023 with a potential funding target of RM3.68 million.
The programme held here today involved 31 franchise company exhibitors in Perak as the first location for this year’s BizFrancais Programme tour series and the next locations are Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Johor and Pahang.
Pernas chairman Datuk Hazimah Zainuddin said the programme aimed to introduce franchise and pre-franchise businesses and facilitate visitors to obtain information offered by Pernas.
“Pernas has approved a total of RM14.94 million in funding following the organisation of the BizFrancais programme from 2019 until 2022.
“From 2004 until now, Pernas has provided RM17.6 million funding to entrepreneurs in Perak,” she said at a press conference after the opening ceremony of Bizfrancais@Perak 2023 by Perak State Women, Family, Social Welfare, Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives committee chairman Salbiah Mohamed.
Since the programme’s introduction in 2019, Pernas as an agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives has organised 16 series of BizFrancais programmes across the country, including in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kelantan, Johor, Melaka, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak.
At the same event, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between Pernas and Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah (USAS) was also held to provide exposure to university students and graduates regarding the franchise ecosystem.
Elaborating further, Hazimah said Pernas would provide human capital training and business consultancy, entrepreneurship training and business development as well as franchise and industry training to the university’s students and graduates.
“Today’s MoU is also a starting point for Pernas to collaborate with other universities in the future,” she said.
At the event, Pernas also presented check replicas and certificates of appreciation to the participants of the “Xcelerator” project and the franchise development programme as well as handed over the offer letters for the Pernas Business In Transformation (BIT) programme.
Besides that, Pernas also handed over donations of essential goods to the asnaf group in conjunction with the Pernas Prihatin corporate social responsibility programme which benefited 200 asnaf recipients around Perak in collaboration with the Islamic Religious Council and Perak Malay Custom. — Bernama
