Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun – Bernama file photo
SEBERANG JAYA: The Rural Development Ministry (KPLB) wants more women to be appointed village heads to attain the target of 30 per cent throughout the country by 2020.
Its minister Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun said women are capable of being leaders if they are given the exposure and awareness.
She said, to date, 17,001 members of the Village Community Management Councils are women.
“There are now 15,441 registered villages, and only 24 per cent are headed by women, we feel that the target can be attained by 2020,” she said in her speech at the launch of the Rural Women Leadership Seminar, north zone, here today.
She added that the target was in line with the re-structuring and re-branding of the village development and security committee approved by the Cabinet in June last year.
Rina also urged women to grab at the opportunities available to them to become entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas.
She said the involvement of women in rural entrepreneurial areas was still low at 21 per cent.
“Our records show that there are 84,000 entrepreneurs who are registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) but only 21 per cent of them are women,” she said.
Rina said there are many women entrepreneurs but they refused to be registered with the SSM.
“They (women entrepreneurs) think that if they are registered with the SSM, they will no longer be eligible for the Cost of Living Aid (BSH),” she said.
These women, she said, should be exposed to programmes which will help them understand the importance and benefits of being registered with the SSM.
“They should think of the bigger benefit of becoming registered entrepreneurs because then they will gain more than the BSH,” she said. – Bernama