Tekun Aims To Disburse RM600 Million In Loans To Cottage Industry Operators This Year

PUTRAJAYA, July 12 (Bernama) -- The National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund (Tekun Nasional) aims to disburse up to RM600 million in loans to cottage industry entrepreneurs this year.

Source from (Bernama): http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=962907
Published: July 13, 2013

Last year, the agency gave out RM508 million.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Abdul Rahim Hassan said RM330 million were dished out in loans to 25,324 small-time traders in the first six months of this year.

He said the government has allocated RM350 million this year to provide small loans for entrepreneurs to start cottage industries.

Money received from loan repayments will also be ploughed back into the loan fund, bringing to RM600 million the loan fund available for this year, he told a media conference to mark Tekun Nasional's victory of the "Best Innovation in Financial Services Award" in Karlsruhe, Germany, last week.

Abdul Rahim said about RM250 million will given out to 20,000 cottage industry operators in the next six months.

He said the loan repayment rate was 85 per cent, an encouraging level for a cottage industry development credit facility agency like Tekun Nasional.

On Tekun Nasional's growth, Abdul Rahim said the agency has disbursed RM2.7 billion to 252,497 small-time entrepreneurs between 1998 and until June this year.

He said funds received from the government totalled RM1.7 billion but the agency had given out RM2.7 billion so far.

"The additional RM1 billion was from repayment," he added.

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was also present at the media conference, said Tekun Nasional won the award at the Global Sustainable Financial Conference 2013, which was held on July 4 and 5.

At the two-day conference, Tekun Nasional was given the honour to make a presentation entitled "SME Financing For Sustainable Development-An Example from Tekun Nasional, he added.

The conference attended by 80 participants from throughout the world discussed issues and problems faced by financial institutions in discharging their duties and responsibilities to provide financing to target groups.

-- BERNAMA