KOTA KINABALU: Sabah needs new, game changing products that will increase the velocity of its economic growth, said Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Dr. Joachim Gunsalam.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mindset needs to shift from not only selling within our local town, but a mindset that focuses on the export market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in these international markets that you could exponentially grow your own business and that positive growth will quantum leap Sabah\u2019s economy<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, I call on Sabah Entrepreneurs Creation (SEC) to do more. Transform these entrepreneurs to export oriented entrepreneurs,\u201d he said, when officiating the 2022 edition of SEC Grand Final Pitching Competition here, Saturday night.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Joachim, Sabah\u2019s total trade has increased by 9.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to a record high of RM87.2 billion, based on the Sabah External Trade Statistics Report for 2021 recently released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).<\/p>\n
This statistic speaks volume about Sabah\u2019s trade investment, he added.<\/p>\n
Dr. Joachim also thanked Dato\u2019 George Lim, the Founder of SEC (Persatuan Transformasi Pembangunan Usahawan Sabah) and GA Space, for helping entrepreneurs in Sabah through such an initiative like the pitching competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told that the SEC has been helping 100 entrepreneurs every year over the last four years. To be better at what they do is very impressive progress. With this positive nature, Sabah\u2019s economy will definitely be on the right track of growth. My Ministry welcomes and appreciates this initiative. Thank you Dato\u2019 George and the team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Joachim also reassured that his Ministry is always here to help and support Sabah entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been providing courses to entrepreneurs on topics such as packaging, labelling and licensing to make their products marketable. Furthermore, my Ministry also helps in marketing Sabah products through business linkages with retail companies such as Petronas\u2019 Kedai Mesra, Bataras Supermarket, Segi Fresh Supermarket, GM Klang and Fasarina Express Mart Labuan.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecently, the Ministry also launched its fourth IKS Mart in Papar, with a few more locations planned such as Kota Marudu, Tuaran, Tawau and Keningau. The goal of these IKS Marts is to help promote locally produced products by small and medium-sized industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cApart from that, the marts also act as a collection centre for Sabah products in that particular region,\u201d he said, adding the game changing product should of course be Sabah\u2019s own locally produced products.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no choice but to support our own local product as it is more sustainable, less costly of product and it creates our own food security. There are many local materials that can be processed into food products such as bananas (abundant supply), tapioca, sweet potato: all these can be processed and produced in the market locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we enter into the third year of the pandemic, the world is challenged with struggling cash flow, logistics, manpower and rising cost of living. These challenges have presented ample opportunities for entrepreneurs\/companies in Sabah to continuously and constantly work towards reducing the cost of producing their products so that their products can be made available to the market at an affordable and competitive price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Joachim also hopes to see more collaboration between the SEC and his Ministry to help Sabah SMEs grow locally and expand internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah needs new, game changing products that will increase the velocity of its economic growth, said Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Dr. Joachim Gunsalam. \u201cOur mindset needs to shift from not only selling within our local town, but a mindset that focuses on the export market. \u201cIt is in these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14440,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14438\/revisions\/14440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}