KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Bhd (PUNB) has committed 75 per cent of its RM200 million allocation in the 2019 Budget as well as its internal funds to finance Bumiputera entrepreneurs’ business development activities.
Chief executive officer Izwan Zainuddin said out of the total allocation, the top two beneficiaries were entrepreneurs from the automotive and food and beverage sectors.
“We expect the available funds will be fully utilised by year-end.
“Through the 2020 Budget, PUNB has been allocated another RM150 million, and with our additional internal funds, we will continue our efforts to help the Bumiputera entrepreneurs,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the National Retail Symposium (SParK) 2019 here, today.
The symposium was officiated by PUNB chairman Datuk Hazimah Zainuddin.
On Bumiputera entrepreneurs performance under its scheme, Izwan said they had performed quite well and had shown a lot of improvement, benefiting from the funds disbursed to them.
Moving forward, he said PUNB would remain focus on the retail and wholesale sectors.
“We have also undertaken a few other initiatives to empower them, which will be announced later,” he said.
In another development, in an effort to expedite the financing process and avoid confusion among applicants, Izwan said he had decided to decategorise the funds to make it more open and standard and this was done over the past six months.
PUNB’s funds were previously segregated into eight categories, namely Prosper Teras (core) scheme, Prosper retail, Prosper mobile truck retail, Prosper wholesale, Prosper young entrepreneurs, budding young entrepreneurs, Small and Medium Enterprise, and business premise.
Izwan added the move was meant to improve the turnaround time to be on par with other financial institutions, which is an important element in entrepreneurship.
— BERNAMA
