Mohamaddin (front centre) is seen with Ibrahim (on his left) and Azran , during Kraftangan Malaysia’s Aidilfitri-Gawai event at its Sarawak headquarters in Kuching. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: The Sarawak handicrafts industry is exhibiting impressive growth, based on its total sales value of RM30.5 million last year.
In this respect, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi also noted that Sarawak posted handicraft sales of RM13.6 million for the period between January and May this year.
According to him, the average monthly sales of handicrafts in Sarawak was RM2.5 million in 2018, but the figure had increased by eight per cent to RM2.7 million a month for the January-May period this year.
“This is a huge amount compared with other states producing handicrafts, and we are satisfied with the handicraft operators in Sarawak. Such effort would increase from time to time, indicating that the production and incomes of these entrepreneurs could be improved,” he told reporters after officiating at the opening ceremony of a Hari Raya Aidilfitri-Gawai Dayak event, hosted by Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation (Kraftangan Malaysia) at its Sarawak headquarters in Jalan Stadium here on Thursday.
For the total sales of handicrafts throughout Malaysia, Mohamaddin said sales reached RM506.5 million last year, with monthly average sales of RM42.2 million.
For the period between January and May this year, he said the sales amounted to RM211.9 million, with average monthly sales of RM42.4 million.
Touching on handicrafts entrepreneurs in Sarawak, he said the number had increased by 28 per cent to 932 this year to date, versus 730 recorded last year.
“For the whole of Malaysia, we had 5,572 handicrafts entrepreneurs in 2018 – the number has increased to 5,684 entrepreneurs this year, representing an increase of two per cent,” he said.
Asked on the 50 per cent distribution of Tourism Tax collection to Sarawak, Mohamaddin said it had been given to the state in March this year, as well as to other states.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) deputy secretary-general (culture) Saraya Arbi, Kraftangan Malaysia director-general Ibrahim Ismail and Kraftangan Malaysia Sarawak director Azran Arip were also present at the event.