KUCHING: The Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) will be holding the Youngpreneurs School Carnival at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) on 22 and 23 April.
The carnival, which aims to attract 10,000 visitors, will feature many interesting programmes such as talk shows, exhibitions, health programmes, Entrepreneur Hunt, sales of goods, quizzes and lucky draws.
This was revealed by the state SSM Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dato’ Zahrah Abd Wahab Fenner during a press conference at Wisma STA, Jalan Datuk Abang Abdul Rahim, here, yesterday.
“Youngpreneurs School Carnival is organised by SSM in collaboration with Unimas and it is an extension programme as a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement last year on grants for students of institutions of higher learning (IPT).
“ SSM has allocated a grant of RM10 million (for period of ten years) for students and we help them by holding a carnival like Youngpreneurs School Carnival, where they can get more information about regulations and business opportunities including benefits of grants provided by government agencies,” she explained.
Zahrah added that a total of 7,221 young entrepreneurs including 4,561 female students, had registered under the programme since it was introduced on 2 January.
Three main businesses preferred by students pertained to food, clothes and cosmetic products.
“For students (18 years old and above) who are interested to apply for this grant, just bring along their copies of Identity Card (IC) and letters of admission to university/college to our office and we will process their applications.
“But there is a condition; only full-time students from local universities can apply for this grant,” she stated.
Zahrah added that the registration fees also varied. For example, if a student wanted to open a business with his/her name, the fee was RM30. Meanwhile, if the student wanted to open a business with a trade or enterprise name, the was RM60.
“Basically, we are encouraging students to register with us because most of them do business without legal entity which is actually an offence, and therefore, we encourage them to register properly.
“We also found that most university graduates (while waiting for job offers), already have incomes from their businesses. So, if they are legally registered with SSM, they can conduct business without hesitation and earn their own incomes while waiting for job offers,” pointed out Zahrah.
