Mas Ermieyati (third left) attaches the flower’s replica to kick off Sarawak Craft Festival 2015.
BINTULU: Organisers of the Sarawak Craft Festival 2015 here are targeting sales of RM400,000 from the participating 78 handicraft entrepreneurs from all over Malaysia.
“The festival has managed to highlight local handicraft products towards enhancing the handicraft industry in the state,” said Deputy Minister of Tourism and Culture Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin when launching the Sarawak Craft Festival 2015 at Bintulu Esplanade on Saturday night.
“What I see at the moment, local handicrafts especially from Sarawak are increasingly recognised at the national and international levels because of their uniqueness and high quality,” she said.
She disclosed that as of October this year, sales of handicraft products in the state had generated a total turnover of RM30.72 million, exceeding the target set by her ministry.
The sales involved 827 entrepreneurs from Sarawak who are registered under the Malaysian Handicraft Programme.
The deputy minister said local handicraft products could penetrate the international market since Malaysia was among preferred destinations by international tourists.
“The ministry also believes that the local handicraft industry will be able to put Malaysia on the international market due to a variety of unique handicrafts from various ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in the country, especially in Sabah and Sarawak,” she added.
Therefore, she hoped local handicraft entrepreneurs in the country, especially in Sarawak, would make the best use of existing opportunities to promote their respective products.
Mas Ermieyati said with the rapid development of industries in the state, especially here which is the main hub of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) projects, many expatriates were drawn to come and work here.
She pointed out that the expatriates were among the biggest markets to help promote these handicrafts which they would bring back to their home countries as souvenirs.
At the same time, she also hoped that the efforts to promote local handicrafts would be intensified from time to time, especially through ‘online’sales which could easily penetrate the international market.
The director-general of the Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation, Zuraida Mokhtar and deputy secretary (culture) of Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Datuk Ab Ghaffar Tambi were among those present at the ceremony.