KUCHING: Nominations for the Sarawak State Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (EOYS) 2017 are now open.
The EOYS is organised by Ministry of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development (MIED) in association with Sarawak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and Ernst and Young (EY).
First launched in 2004, it is a prestigious award programme held annually to honour and acknowledged exceptional entrepreneurial talent and leadership. Up to last year, almost 50 entrepreneurs from all over Sarawak have been given this recognition.
The launching of the nomination for EOYS 2017 was graced by Assistant Minister of E-Commerce who is also Assistant Minister of Entrepreneur and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development, Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais at Wisma Sumber Alam in Petra Jaya here, yesterday.
Naroden in his speech said it was important to have EOYS as it provided opportunities for networking and accessing valuable media coverage as well as raising personal and company profile.
“It is also an avenue for EOYS winner to be nominated for national honours, where they will compete with the best in the country.
“Emphasis will primarily be on the individual’s attributes over the Company’s and in general, cover, amongst others, demonstration of outstanding leadership, vision, dedication as well as intelligent risk taking; company milestones with consideration of industry obstacles and each entrepreneur’s ability to overcome adversity.
“Corporate culture, values and incentives; financial performance and growth record and social responsibilities, reputation and contribution to the community that demonstrate the characteristics of a good model corporate citizen,” he explained.
Naroden also urged entrepreneurs in the state, especially the youths to take up entrepreneurship as a career to be more innovative and creative by leveraging on modern technology in order to be competitive in this globalised world.
The awards categories are Emerging Entrepreneur (business between two and five years old or entrepreneur is aged 35 or under at the time nomination closed); Master Entrepreneur (maintained management excellence over a sustained period, business founded more than five years ago) and Outstanding Entrepreneur-Outside Sarawak (running a successful business in Malaysia or overseas).
A nominee must be a Sarawakian or a permanent resident (PR) of Sarawak who is either an owner-manager of a privately held company of at least two years old or a founder of a listed company who is still active in top management and retains, directly and indirectly, a significant stake in the company.
Nominations for the EOYS can be submitted to SCCI by business associations or individually, not later than 30 August, 2017.
EOYS will be presented at the forthcoming SCCI’s 66th Annual Dinner on 10 November, 2017.
For further inquiries, contact SCCI Secretariat at 082-237148 or admin@scci.org.my.
Also present at the event were SCCI President Datuk Abang Haji Abdul Karim Tun Openg and his deputy, Datuk Philip Ting.
