KOTA KINABALU: The Junior Chamber International (JCI) Malaysia is inviting young entrepreneurs from Sabah to represent Malaysia at the JCI Creative Entrepreneur Award (CYEA) 2011.
The association yesterday officially opened the entries for the award, calling for outstanding young entrepreneurs in the state to come forward to vie for the honour to represent Malaysia at the event to be held in Brussels, Belgium this November.
Entrepreneurs aged 18-40 are eligible to compete and candidates can be either self-nominated or nominated by others.
No entry fee will be charged and the competition is open to both JCI members and non-members.
Three winners will be selected to represent Malaysia in Belgium with all travel and accommodation expenses to be paid by JCI.
The opening of the nomination was launched by Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah.
JCI CYEA Malaysia organising chairman JC Stewart Lee said ever since the introduction of the award in Malaysia four years ago, there haD been subdued participation from entrepreneurs from East Malaysia due to the lack of promotional activities here.
He said the launch of the award in Sabah this year would be able to encourage more participation from the state, given that Sabah had many highly qualified young entrepreneurs who deserved to be recognized at the international level.
Entry forms can be filled online at eee.jcicyea.com.my and the last day for submission is May 31.
Tan said at a press conference held in conjunction with the launch, that JCI’s effort to acknowledge the achievement of young entrepreneurs was in line with the government’s effort to promote entrepreneurship development in the State.
He called on JCI to also recognize creative small business operators, pointing out that more than half of the country’s revenue comes from small businesses.
“They maybe small, but put together, they represent quite a significant revenue for the country. So much is the importance of small businesses that specific programmes are created for them,” he said.
He also expressed the hope that more nominations for the award will come from Sabah this year.
The JCI CYEA was launched worldwide in 2005 by JCI as their annual programme to recognise and honour exceptionally creative and successful young entrepreneurs.
It was introduced in Malaysia in 2007, providing a competitive platform for local entrepreneurs to compete and to be recognised in the international arena.
Adding to its credibility, the award is administered in partnership with Flanders District of Creativity (FDC).
A JCI CYEA Malaysia will be held in August ahead of the final event in Brussels to announce the name of the three national winners and JCI is expecting to receive between 200 to 300 participations for the award this year.