KUCHING: The Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) suggests that Sarawak devise some intervention mechanism to nurture and promote Bumiputera involvement in business.
Its president Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum said well executed schemes like mentoring, vendor development and business incubation could go a long way towards attaining this goal.
He said DCCl is also of the view that due to the community’s lack of business culture, it is imperative that the government and its development agencies like SEDC, SEB and Recoda take bold initiatives to increase the participation of Bumiputera and especially Dayaks in commerce and industry.
He said this was because DCCI wants to end identification of profession and way of living with race.
He noted that the budding Dayak business community was particularly keen to participate in Sarawak’s quest to accelerate development which has a massive infrastructure development budget.
“They want to have active participation in the development of this land of the Hornbills.
“Their dream is not only to see our state having the state of the art infrastructure but also that our people are nurtured to replace the foreign contractors and undertake at least the maintenance of these infrastructure and utilities when the foreigners are no more around,” he said at the official opening of DCCI’s 17th annual general meeting and business dialogue at BCCK here yesterday.
Salang said DCCI was most grateful for the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s interest in helping increase Bumiputera participation in the construction industry of the state.