Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud
KUCHING: A body to strengthen Bumiputera participation in the ecotourism sector and promote the cottage industry here will be set up as the government ups its focus on developing both industries.
To be named Bumiputera Wholesale Tourism Organisation, this establishment will become the focal point for tour operators, homestay operators and other tourism industry players to package their products together.
It will also allow Bumiputera entrepreneurs from all sectors to collaborate in developing their businesses while becoming an entity that will lead in packaging all tourism products – promoting good destinations and sales of products to worldwide markets.
Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud who made this announcement yesterday revealed that such initiative would enable industry players here to penetrate countries such as the United States, England, China and Japan easily, considering that promotional activities would no longer require individual efforts.
“One of the fast growing sectors in the state which has strong Bumiputera participation today is ecotourism. The Bumiputera community has vast experience in ecotourism from cultural right up to the manufacturing of local products.
“However, the weakness of the community when it comes to involvement in economic activities is that in every industry, there would be certain sectors (within the industry) that somewhat lack Bumiputera participation to ensure vast success in the products to effectively attract the end users.
“The setting up of this ‘wholesale tourism organisation’ would encounter such issue,” said Taib when officiating at the launching of the Sixth Sarawak Bumiputera Economic Congress (Jejak 2012) at Pullman Hotel here.
He also said those producing tourism products need not worry about the marketing aspect as it could be done by other parties, which augured well for Bumiputera involvement in ecotourism.
One example that could be used as a module for other collaborations, he mentioned, was that entrepreneurs could have their products linked on a contractual basis with hotels in its promotion programmes.
He further said that the wholesale tourism organisation, which is under the Bumiputera Entrepreneur Development Unit in the Chief Minister’s Office, would also aid in improving marketing efforts and increasing sales volume of the cottage industry.
“At the moment, most of the cottage industry’s capacity building could not be done properly due to lack of economic strength within the community but this would not be a problem anymore.
“The cottage industry does not have to build big expensive factories as they only need to focus on the main important factor of their production, which is product consistency in terms of standard and taste,” continued Taib.
He was confident that such initiative would attract local Bumiputera communities to be involved in developing the cottage industry.
On another matter, Taib mentioned that the state would also be establishing a liaison committee under the same Bumiputera Entrepreneur Development Unit to help Bumiputeras identify business opportunities in the small and medium industry.
Also present at the opening ceremony of the two-day convention were Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, Industrial Development Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan and Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Bumiputera Entrepreneur Development) Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais and other state dignitaries.
Abang Johari and Awang Tengah are joint Jejak 2012 advisers.
Others present included Teraju chief executive officer Husni Salleh and Gabungan Usahawan Bumiputera Sarawak chairman Datu Abang Helmi Ikhwan.